


As time and sand slips away through your fingers

by I_am_sorry



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe-Arabian Fusion, Anal Sex, Culture Issues, Food Issues, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Royalty, Tags Are Hard, Unspecified Setting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2018-07-22 19:35:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 24
Words: 74,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7451422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_sorry/pseuds/I_am_sorry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After ten years a foreign concubine struggles to hold his position as the king’s favorite.</p>
<p>As nostalgia settles in he starts to wonder if his biggest desire will also be his biggest downfall. After all isn’t it true, there’s a proverb warning, be careful what you wish for?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I do claim the rights for the story and characters, in here.

Prologue.

Betaed by Moria Polonius.

 

“Have you had enough yet?” Sie asked quietly after some minutes had passed. He didn’t seem upset or particularly tired. Azraq looked at him then, paying enough attention at his rumpled state – robes opened and sliding off his pale shoulders, his long legs bare and the short light white hair of his head tangled in messy knots.

“Not nearly enough, no,” he answered slowly.

“Would you like me to do something about it?”

“I don’t.”

“When it will be then?” Sie asked looking at the ceiling of the room – high domes in gold and white - from his position on the enormous bed.

“When it will be what?” Azraq sighed knowing very well where this conversation was headed. “Zahrat saghira?”

“When will you have enough and let me go home?”

He didn’t bother to reply to that.

“Your majesty,” Sie continued. “I think this can no longer keep its course, we have reached the end of the rope… you will be turning twenty nine this year and you have yet to take a wife and produce an heir-”

“Sie,” Azraq interrupted getting impatient. “I take back my words, I haven’t had enough of you and yes you better do something about it.”

It wasn’t particularly difficult. It was an automatic response after so many years. Sie got up from his spot on the bed and crawled towards him, straddling him in one swift motion –his entrance still slick from the oil and Azraq’s semen of their earlier previous encounter. “As you wish then, your majesty.”

They moved in sync, their hips dancing to an old tune. “Sie look at me.”

The man did as he was told, opening his previously closed eyes – red clashed against blue -

“Sie,” Azraq sighed in the man’s neck. He felt his pleasure building, his heart beating faster, his breath labored and erratic. “Sie...”

Sie lifted himself up two more times, impaling himself in the king’s aching cock –he threw his head back and climaxed, tightening his inner walls around Azraq sending him to his own peak.

They panted for breath afterwards, still enclosed in the same space. “How about now, your majesty?" Sie asked right after.

Azraq sighed yet again. “You wish for much.”

Sie shook his head. “Is but one little request… I have never asked for anything, have I?”

“No, you certainly have never asked me for a thing.”

“Your majesty?” Sie insisted.

“I cannot.”

The other man lowered his head, still resting on Azraq’s legs. “It has been ten years,” he said softy. “Surely by this time the debt… if there ever was one has been paid off?”

“Sie, I don’t want t-”

“Azraq,” Sie said finally, looking at him again (it didn’t happen often… this… Sie calling him by his given name…it was always only ever ‘your majesty’) with resolution in his brilliant red eyes. “I beg you, let me go.”

“No,” Azraq answered calmly even when he felt his anger start to burn. It would not do to lose his composure now. (Once when young he would have unleashed his wrath without a doubt, once when young he would just have chained Sie to the bed and be done with it… but he was not young anymore, ten years had taken its toll on him and he was starting to feel old).

Sie didn’t cry at his words like he would have once done, Azraq suspected the man was dry inside with no more tears to offer. “I will leave one way or another.”

“No you won’t--”

“Azraq,” Sie narrowed his eyes. “Don’t make me do it in the hard way.”

“No.”

“Please if you have ever felt something for me, even the smallest bit of affection…please, Azraq let me go.”

“You wish for him that much?”

Sie looked away. “It is not about that anymore, he must be married already… I just miss my land, my family, my sisters and my mother, I have not seen them in ten years.”

“What would you do if told you that he is not?”

Sie closed up at that. “It doesn’t concern me anymore.”

Azraq smiled wickedly then – something ugly and bitter curling in his chest. “Ah… but I’m sure the good white king of Warf would take you back. He wouldn’t mind making you his consort, even when you have belonged to another man for ten years, he would treat you kindly like once he promised…of this I’m sure.”

Sie trembled at that, red eyes stormy with pain. “Don’t speak of him like that.”

Cold blue eyes tightened at that. “I talk like I wish.”

“Azraq,” Sie called softly, his head lowered in defeat. “I do not wish to fight more than this, I…I will go to sleep.”

Sie left his spot on Azraq’s lap and rolled to his side of the bed, pulling his robes closed and curling on himself.

Azraq got up and straightened his clothes. It was past midnight but he needed to be away from here, from Sie before he did something he could regret.

He left his room, blowing the lamps off and closing the door behind him. He walked towards the gardens and soon found one place to rest –the palace was big and usually buzzing with life during the day (servants, advisors, dancers always making some noise) but at night it felt bigger perhaps…definitely bigger and desolate.

“Well it’s been a while,” a voice said behind him.

“Alkahadra?”

“Your majesty,” the man named Alkahadra responded nodding.

“What do you mean it’s been a while?”

“Well… when your relationship with the current malika started, I remember you used to fight a lot, I also remember you coming here after that.”

“He is not my malika,” Azraq said curtly.

“But you wish he was.”

“He is another’s malika, not in word or in body but certainly in heart,” Azraq looked at the sky, it was dark with little stars to be seen. He suddenly felt tired. “I… I think in the end I deserve it for not following wise advise, you know Alkahadra I have but a few good memories of my mother but I recall her once saying to me something I should have always had remembered.”

“Your majesty?” his loyal advisor asked.

“You can take what belongs to someone else anytime but you have to be prepared to bear the consequences.”

“Your majes— No, Azraq… I’m sure the malika holds you very dear,” Alkahadra tried sympathetically.

“The person you, all the habitants of this palace and my people call malika, he is not and has never been mine.”

“Your majesty-”

“Enough.”

Alkahadra nodded. “May I sit beside you?”

Azraq smiled at that –it wasn’t a very bright smile but the feeling behind the gest was genuine. “Of course.”

Alkahadra sat quietly at his side.

Azraq had never really been sexually attracted to men (Sie being his biggest exception and his biggest mistake) but he could tell women found Alkahadra attractive enough. His head advisor was a little bit older than himself but he had always been sager than all the older advisers.

“Your majesty… Are you planning to…”

“No.”

“How do you—”

“It is not a secret that he has always wanted to leave.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not planning on allowing him that.”

“He will keep being the current malika, then?”

Azraq lowered his head. “He will be whatever he wants to be.”

“Your majesty I think you—”

“You don’t think shit,” a voice hidden in the shadows cut the head advisor’s speech abruptly -- if it had been anyone else speaking Azraq would have already turned around and called the guards but seeing as he knew whom the voice belonged to he just shook his head and sighed. “So you are back.”

“Send this one away, Warlord, or I won’t say shit.”

“I need you to go,” he said to Alkahadra without preamble.

The head advisor just narrowed his eyes at that but after a moment nodded and left.

“What is it, Zanbaq?”

“What? There’s no welcome back sweetheart? No, I missed you? Nothing?” The man called Zanbaq came closer after a while, a pout on his lips and mirth in his eyes. “I’m happy to see you, Warlord.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I would call you my love but you won’t appreciate that either, will you?”

“I don’t care.”

Zanbaq titled his head with a calculating look in his eyes. “So what did he do to you this time?”

Azraq shrugged. “It is not your business anyway. Just tell me about your trip.”

“You know… king,” Zanbaq said drawing the word _king_ in between his lips in a mockery of respect. “You should have left him to root in Hazan after you were done with him back in the day. You would be happier, and I would be as well. I hope you still remember your promises Azraq.”

Azraq looked at the other man, taking mild interest in his appearance. Zanbaq was around Azraq’s age; he was tall, lean, with silky long black hair carefully arranged in a braid and malicious vivid green eyes. His taste in clothing lead to transparent robes and soft white pants, and of course the final touch to the image was the heavy jewelry the man was always prone to use to adorn his caramel skin.

“You are lusted for by many,” Azraq said quietly. “Why do you insist on me?”

“I wonder if you are cruel without noticing, habibtaa.”

“You know as well as I that I never knew much of kindness.”

“That I do,” Zanbaq conceded easily.

“I have heard the men you train call you beautiful,” Azraq started with something close to amusement in his voice. “I heard that every one of my poor soldiers dreams of wedding you and protecting you for anything that could harm you. What do you have to say about this Zanbaq?”

“I’m flattered?”

Azraq smiled briefly. “You could get a really devoted consort.”

Zanbaq snorted at that. “Too bad I don’t like devotion.”

“Yes.”

“So I hope you remember what I like,” Zanbaq said simply, walking towards the king. He stopped short of a few centimeters and lifted one hand to caress Azraq’s face. The touch was soft and almost fleeting. “I hope you remember blood and sand and everything you ever said to me.”

“You hope too much. We met twenty years ago,” Azraq said, blandly not caring to move away from Zanbaq’s intrusive touches.

Zanbaq narrowed his eyes, a searching quality to his gaze. He shook his head after a while and stepped back. “Fine, have it your way for now, Warlord.”

“Report.”

“Warf is moving,” Zanbaq said frankly; all the previous notions of flirting and games were now gone from the man currently speaking with Azraq. “I have heard they have a princess of marriageable age. I have also heard that Lucedella is in treaties with their ports and that Solnse is shipping them high quantities of armament. It also seems they are planning on sending a message to you… If you were to ask me, I would say they are getting ready for war.”

“And if I don’t?” Azraq said pensively.

“Then I would say you are a fool and that you have gotten too soft hearted, Warlord,” Zanbaq said disapprovingly. “And if that’s the case then I would blame that wretched foreigner you have as a whore.”

“Don’t talk about Sie like that,” Azraq reprimanded him slowly – it was a lost cause with Zanbaq, he knew.

Zanbaq snarled at that. “I will do what I fucking please and you piece of fucking shit better remember that.”

“I would have any other man executed on spot just for the way you talked to me.”

“But never me.”

Azraq sighed heavily and nodded after a while. “Never you,” He agreed quietly. “How is my brother doing?”

“The brat is annoying but he is doing well. He couldn’t wait to see you and your stupid sahla, that’s one of the reasons I hurried my trip. The other one being,” Zanbaq swallowed, and if Azraq didn’t know him better he would almost believe him unsettled. “How’s the…” Zanbaq made a gesture with his hand, trying to elaborate without saying much. “I mean to say,” Zanbaq tried again looking upset with himself for showing so much anxiety. “I managed to collect all the herbs. Do you still have enough? Or should I start already preparing the next doses?”

“I’m fine Zanbaq,” Azraq said and just that small reassurance seemed to put the other man at ease.

“Well then, if that’s all, I’ll be going to my rooms and seeing that for tonight you don’t have anywhere to sleep, want to come with me?”

It was lie of course, the palace had hundreds of unused rooms but Zanbaq had always done this.

Azraq considered it. Many times Zanbaq had offered this, sometimes with double meaning, other times just really to rest. Azraq had refused countless of times and only agreed two or three nights back in the early stages of his relationship with Sie after particularly vicious quarrels with the light haired man. It had never made a difference, Sie just didn’t care, Azraq could very well sleep with half of the palace and Sie still wouldn’t mind – although he never had. With Zanbaq back then it was only really to sleep away from Sie, away from the cause of so many of his distresses.

Azraq was painfully aware of what jealousy was. He had felt it many times (thanks to the king of Warf), he had learned the emotion after meeting Sie and maybe back in the day he had been naïve enough to think that passing the night in Zanbaq’s rooms, one of the most beautiful men of the kingdom, would move Sie to a degree – he hadn’t hoped for a fit of burning jealousy but he had hoped for something.

It hadn’t happened.

It had been disappointing to see how Sie had seemed almost relieved of his absence, relieved of seeing him in another’s rooms.

Azraq knew better now.

“Well?” Zanbaq asked impatiently, he had never been one for patience. Azraq could see Zanbaq didn’t think he would say yes anyway and yet he still waited for his response.  

“I will go,” Azraq said tiredly, dropping all pretenses for the night. “I’ll go with you Zanbaq.”

Zanbaq titled his head looking slightly surprised. “Habibtaa?”

Azraq shook his head. “Just to sleep.”

Zanbaq nodded softly at that but even the he seemed pleased enough.

 

\---

 

Azraq awoke with the aroma of cinnamon, mint and something flowery burning in his nostrils. It was unusual smell to wake to. It also reminded him of his childhood.

Zanbaq, he thought sluggishly, still trying to wake up completely and sure enough once he opened his eyes, he could see the other man’s peaceful sleeping face close to his own.

Zanbaq had him hugged tightly, just like when they were kids, and for the first time in ten years Azraq wondered why he had to go and fall in love with someone who never returned his feelings when he already had a person who loved him dearly.

Because even with all his sarcasm, irreverence and bitterness, Azraq knew Zanbaq loved him.

Had done so for a very long time.

“If only...”

Azraq blinked at that and noticed Zanbaq’s sleepy eyes staring steadily at him.

“Is what you are thinking, aren’t ya, king?”

“I need to get up.”

Zanbaq smiled , a lazy and inviting kind of smile. “No, you don’t. You can laze here as much as you want, it's just that you are not used to it, I bet that stupid sahla of yours throws you out of his rooms when the sun has barely risen, doesn’t he? I bet you don’t know slow morning fucking, do you, king?”

“I…” Azraq frowned at the words. He sometimes felt so exposed when near Zanbaq -- but it couldn’t be helped, they had known each other for a very, very long time. “I don’t want to talk about Sie.”

“No,” Zanbaq said almost purring. “I do not wish to speak of him when I have you in my bed, either. We could be doing…other things.”

“This isn’t like that.” And it wasn’t, Azraq wasn’t even sure if (hypothetically speaking) he could get aroused with another man apart from Sie.

“No but, if only… right, Habibtaa?”

“Just keep sleeping,” Azraq said quietly, not wanting to disturb the other man more than he had to.

“Fine. Just go already.”

Azraq shook his head and walked out of Zanbaq’s rooms without anything else to say. It was early in the morning and as they were in summer, it was already blazing hot. Azraq’s clothes were glued to his skin and he felt uncomfortable with the heat, he wanted a bath and new set of clothes but of course, all of his garments were in the rooms Sie was sleeping in.

He didn’t make it too far, however, for when he passed one of the halls close to the bathrooms he was distracted by a strident noise.

Azraq followed the sound -- reluctantly curious -- and wasn’t surprised to find some of the dancers that cheered the events of the palace already practicing their craft.

What did surprise him was the person who was in the middle of the circle the happy dancers had created with their moves and merriment. Sie stood there, moving at the same rhythm as the other dancers – his feet were bare, his tangled white hair barely moving with the air, red eyes alive with joy and flushed skin from the effort.

Sie was wearing the patterned royal robes he had refused to use many times before (white, white, and so much white with just a touch of silver) and he shone as the main protagonist of the dance.

Sie was beautiful.

And sometimes Azraq just wanted to keep him in a glass case to stare at him all day from afar, as to not taint him anymore; sometimes he wanted to keep Sie close and touch, devour, consume until there’s nothing left; sometimes he just wanted him to keep smiling…

And sometimes Azraq just wished for Sie’s happiness above all.

Those times were the worst because Azraq had an inkling of what granting happiness for Sie would entail.

“If only...” he mumbled, remembering Zanbaq’s words.

“Your majesty?” One of the dancers who were just observing and not joining in the rave noticed him hidden in one of the corners of the hall and came close to him. “Is everything alright? Did we disrupt you? Is it too much noise?”

“I am sorry, I was just walking by and got distracted but I’ll be leaving now, please keep doing your rehearsals.”

“You could never bother us, your majesty,” the young woman said prettily. It wasn’t a secret all the dancers had been part of the previous king’s harem and they were still hoping to get in the new king’s bed. “Please, come to see.”

“No, I--”

“Your majesty?” another dancer asked from afar and soon enough it was impossible for him to keep concealing his presence.

The dancers in the circle stooped their motion altogether and quite predictably the head of the dancers strolled fast towards him. Waradi was a stern woman well past her forty years – she was the type of person who had the no-nonsense attitude mastered to a well raised degree.

“Your highness?”Waradi asked with careful respect. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

Azraq found himself at loss for words and for a moment as all the dancers stared curiously at him, he wished he had heard Zanbaq’s pleas of staying in bed so he wouldn’t have to be here – where he obviously didn’t want to be. “I was just strolling by,” he said finally, trying to sound as composed as he could manage.

“Is that so, your majesty?” Waradi noted with good-natured interest. “Then, was it what you saw to your liking? Or would you like for us to improve on something?”

“Maybe,” another dancer (a voluptuous bold fair skinned woman) interjected. “his majesty wishes to dance a piece with us?”

Azraq was getting ready to refuse, already forming an excuse in his mind when another voice interrupted and this time, this time Azraq knew the person behind the voice.

“Would you like a dance with me, your majesty?” Sie asked expectantly – the crowd around him had parted to let him get near to the king.

And just like that Azraq’s words died in his throat.

He had never been able to refuse Sie anything (expect, of course, the only reason they ever fought these days: the subject of Sie’s freedom) and it wasn’t like the other man ever asked for much.

Azraq nodded after a while and soon the music (noise) and cheer started again. Sie took his hand and led him to the middle of the hall. Sie’s steps were measured, coordinated and seasoned with years of experience behind, Azraq following the lead as best as he could which wasn’t saying much, after all, he had never been much of a dancer.

The only dances he ever learned were taught by Zanbaq many years ago in a distant land and reality very different from this one.

Azraq felt his feet follow the music’s rhythm accordingly and yet his thoughts were very away from the task. He remembered parts of his past he guessed were better buried deep within and then he focused on his dancing partner.

Sie looked normal enough by now; even a tad bit content (he had always liked to dance).

Freedom.

Ten years were a very long time, indeed.

Sie had asked that from him from time to time in all these past years but only recently he seemed to enter in constant bursts of nostalgic sentiment and press the issue harder.

Azraq had always refused vehemently but a little part of himself had always wondered if it had been for the best.

Just this morning in Zanbaq’s room’s he had wondered had he not met Sie then would his life had been different? Better?

Would he had been able to reciprocate Zanabq’s feelings?

What would be Sie doing now?

Would he be happier?

The answer although painful was surprisingly clear. Facts he had always known but had stubbornly ignored, facts he had always wanted to ignore. Azraq came to an abrupt halt and with that the music stopped.

“Your majesty?” Sie prodded with uncertainty in his voice.

Azraq shook his head and left without saying much.

Whispers erupted trailing behind him after that and it wasn’t much surprise seeing as it was the first time in ten years the king had refused his favorite in public.

 

\---

 

“I feel like I should be cheering right now but your stupid face won’t just let me?” Zanbaq said with a long suffering sigh.

“I’m happy to be a kind of amusement to you Zanbaq” Azraq said tonelessly without looking up from the papers he was working on.

Zanbaq shrugged and leaned closely to peek at the papers the king had been occupied with during all the morning. “What are we doing with the Warf affair?” he asked carefully and Azraq knew his friend expected to have a concrete answer from him by now.

“We are calling the council,” Azraq had thought long and hard about this and he had come to the unfortunate conclusion that as the head of the ‘alddual alrramal’ he had to let the other’s know about the upcoming threat.

Zanbaq stilled at this. “Are you sure Haabi—”

“Your majesty?” Sie asked after knocking politely on the door – waiting patiently to be granted permission to enter.

Zanbaq’s eyebrows rose. “Well, look at that,” he whispered in a contemplative tone.

“Yes?” Azraq stopped his writing and lowered his head.

“May I come in?” Sie asked softly and Azraq knew it was unusual for him to not grant Sie permission to enter to any room he wished right away. Azraq clenched his fists and remained silent, he still didn’t want to deal with any of his previous revelations – or the things the servants were already whispering in the halls about how the king didn’t love the foreigner anymore because it was… it just was…

Zanbaq looked expectantly at him and shook his head with clear irritation after noticing Azraq wasn’t about to say anything just yet. “Yes, Sahla, you may come in,” he said in a disgusted tone.

Sie entered, his posture tense at sensing Zanbaq’s presence in the room. “Your majesty.” He bowed slowly towards the king and soon after bowed to Zanbaq as well.

“What do you want?” Zanbaq asked without courtesy and preamble.  

Sie, as far as Azraq could tell, had never really been very fond of his friend (their dislike was mutual, it seemed) but tried to behave accordingly around him – as he had always had perfect court etiquette.

“To speak with the king,” Sie answered steadily. “Alone.”

Zanbaq snorted. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Your majesty,” Sie pressed again. “I need to talk with you.”

Zanbaq crossed his arms stubbornly and shifted making very clear his standing –which was to say, he wouldn’t be moving anytime soon. Azraq sighed. It was a difficult decision because if he asked Zanbaq to leave, the latter would throw a fit while if he refused Sie, their already strained relationship (if it was indeed a relationship…) would deteriorate even more.

“I will speak with you,” Azraq decided finally, feeling how Zanbaq started to stress, “but I hope you make it quick because I promised to eat lunch with my friend here,” he said, referring to Zanbaq.

It was a lie of course -- they hadn’t accorded to eat together but Azraq supposed the prospect of having lunch with him would pacify Zanbaq enough.

“I will wait for you in the east garden,” Zanbaq said as response (a warning hidden in his voice: ‘If you don’t come, you will pay dearly’).

And only after Zanbaq finally closed the door behind him, Sie managed to relax his posture.

“Your majesty.” Sie titled head, frowning. “Is something bothering you?”

“No.”

Red eyes examined him closely. “I thought you would like to have lunch together but seeing you already have a compromise, would you like me to prepare your bath?”

“I… No, its fine, I will tell to one of the head maids to see to it.”

“There’s no need, I have always done this for you.”

“You are probably busy with your practice.”

“It’s my duty to tend to the king’s needs,” Sie said obstinately; he was starting to lose patience.

Duty.

Duty… wasn’t love, was it?

“Zahrat Saghira,” Azraq said slowly making Sie go still – it was a normal thing between them, this nickname. “Come here.”

Sie looked at him, considering his words, an unusual shine in his vibrant red eyes. “Wouldn’t be better if I locked the doors first, your majesty?”

“Just come here.”

And Sie did, sitting just in front of him over the reading table.

Azraq reached a hand towards him, careful fingers trailing unreadable patterns in Sie’s chest. It was a slow, teasing kind of caress.

Azraq sprawled him over the table and continued his caresses, replacing his fingers with his tongue, licking trough clothes the other’s chest, stopping before a nipple and biting lightly, maddeningly slowly, just as his hands started to touch Sie’s thighs.

“Your majesty?” Sie said with half-lidded eyes when Azraq stopped his ministrations over him.

“Undress,” Azraq ordered roughly.

And it was easy enough, discarding the royal robes aside, the clothes pooling around Sie’s feet. Azraq stared at the pale skin exposed in front of him, ivory translucent and soft -- it never ceased to amaze him.

“You are a son of the moon,” Azraq said quietly, contemplative. His mother used to tell him tales of the moon and her love, of how she had fallen for a human who had already had a wife and how she had become bitter and broken hearted and after a long suffering she had decided to claim the first child of the couple for herself.

The boy had been pale, with white hair and cold skin. It was also said he had been rather cruel to the couple as he considered they had caused pain to his real mother.

This tale had been vastly used among the lands to teach children the origins of the people of Warf so different from them with their fair skin and unkind ways.

Sie stared at him, something like a smile forming on his lips. “I’m not. I’m just a man, your majesty.”

“I, as well, am just a man” Azraq said, his eyes becoming distant in matter of seconds.

Sie struggled to hold his attention, noticing the abrupt change in the king. “Your majesty?” he asked, opening up his legs -- exposing himself raw to the other man.

Azraq didn’t answer and just followed automatically the instinct of his body -- he opened Sie’s legs wider and probed his opening with one sleek finger. The passage was oiled already as it always had been their custom since Sie had become his courtesan.

He moved his finger and slipped a second one inside, the walls constricting the movement of his hand were hot and Sie’s breath hitched when he managed to find the other’s man prostate.

He teased that spot restlessly, making Sie arch his back and hold back moans of raw pleasure.

Sie bucked under his ministrations, red eyes glazed with incoherence and desire, a weak flush marring his otherwise pale, pale skin.

Azraq looked at him. They had been doing this for ten years and still he ached at the sight -- it had taken him a time and patience he usually lacked back in the days to acknowledge it but now he could truly understand he didn’t want to just fuck Sie, he didn’t want to just fuck him and be done with it, it wasn’t purely carnal, he wished to love him…

Azraq, as naïve as it sounded, loved him, he was in love with the man currently gasping under him.

Sie however didn’t reciprocate his feelings and while Azraq had no doubt the other man had always (mostly) enjoyed the sex between them, it didn’t mean much in his heart.

Blue eyes shuttered a bit more and soon enough Azraq’s expression turned emotionless. He retreated from Sie’s open and tempting body.

It had never mattered before…

Sie looked at him dizzily with wonder in his eyes. “Your majesty?”

But for some reason, it bothered him now.

“I need to be ready for lunch; I’ll go take a bath,” Azraq said finally. “Finish on your own or…”

‘Look for a whiling partner, I’m sure many will be delighted to sample the king’s favorite,’ Azraq thought sourly but didn’t dare to voice it, as it could happen Sie would take it to heart and really go to bed with whoever seized his attention.

And Azraq wasn’t sure how well he would take such ordeal after all. Sie had always remained faithful to him, if for the wrong reasons, like duty.

Sie sat up ~~then~~ ; he was still visibly agitated but trying to fight his lust down. “Azraq?” he called softly.

Azraq looked at him; it was unexpected hearing his name again from Sie’s lips so soon.

Sie looked at him with something like worry in his vibrant red eyes. The frown was back on his face. “Azraq,” he called yet again, reaching a hand to hold Azraq’s arm, stopping him from leaving. “What is bothering you?”

“Do you love me?” Azraq said at last.

Red eyes opened widely with surprise. “Your majesty?" Sie asked uncertainly.

They had never really talked about this.

“Do you love me?” Azraq repeated in but a murmur.

Sie remained silent.

The king nodded at that. He had always known. “I’ll see you soon, Sie.”

He left without looking back, silence trailing after him like a heavy blanket.

 

\---

 

“Would you grant him his freedom?”

“No.”

“It won’t do you any good being like this.”

Azraq shrugged, his attention solely focused on his plate of food. “I’m not really hungry.”

“You never are,” Zanbaq said, sighing. “But these are other times and you are entitled to eat now, so please try at least some of it.”

“I won’t give him the freedom.”

“Azraq,” Zanbaq chastised with little patience. “The sahla will never be able to pay the debt, not even in one hundred lives. Warf owes us more than they will ever be able to repay. Just let it go, already.”

“I dislike this kind of fruit.”

“You used to love oranges.”

“It might have been in another life.”

Zanbaq tilted his head, lifting up his glass of wine and putting it down again. “I do wonder how he manages to feed you? Or do you refuse him every little scrap of food?”

“He knows I don’t eat much.”

“He knows you don’t eat at all,” Zanbaq said reprovingly. “And it’s such a shame, look we are even eating outdoors”.

“He usually cooks for me.” Azraq replied blandly, playing idly with the slices of fruit scattered on his plate. “Traditional dishes from his home.”

“Are you telling me that what little you ingest daily is traditional food of Warf?” Zanbaq asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I remember mother and sister every time I swallow a bite,” Azraq elaborated without emotion or intonation on his voice.

“Motherfucker. Does he know? Is that why he does it? I’m gonna whip him until he bleeds.” Zanbaq was seething at this point.

“He doesn’t know.”

“Habibtaa?”

“He has been paying for ten years a debt without even knowing what it is about.”

\---

A/N: Well, this is a pet project of mine… to tell the truth is in what I have been working mostly in these past months, I’m really excited about it but I also think no one will be much interested in it… that being said if there’s indeed anyone reading and --is like me, who needs to know who to ship since the beginning-- wishes to know who the main paring is, the story is about the king and the courtesan (Azraq/Sie), they are end game.

Would love feedback <3

Edited 07/31/2016. I have a beta now.


	2. The king's favorite I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Moria

 

 

Sie awoke with a start. He blinked several times and tried to focus his blurry gaze. The room was dark and without moving much he could tell he was alone--Azraq hadn’t been sleeping in the royal quarters lately.

Sie sighed and sat up in the enormous bed; there were still some hours to pass before the day started and once he was awake there was no way he could go back to sleep. It would be another restless night.

In the end he chose to get up and head towards the kitchens, he would get something warm and soothing to drink and afterwards maybe he could go back to bed and try to sleep some more.

As Sie entered the kitchens he could hear the shuffling and stirring of the maids who got up really early to bake fresh bread and to prepare some of the more complicated ingredients for the meals of the day. Two blushing girls approached him once he was inside--he had never seen them before so he supposed they were new to the palace.

“Yes?” he asked carefully as to no scare them away.

“Um-” one of them said while the other looked at her feet. “Uh… we just, um—uh…”

Sie just nodded, encouraging them to ask their questions.

“We were just wondering if his majesty needed anything?” one of them finally said, stuttering at her last words.

“We would also like to say that you are as beautiful as the town people say and that we are very honored to serve you and that we, uh, we don’t know much about the proceedings here but we will do our best and will be loyal to you and his majesty the king,” the other one added quickly, almost out of breath.

Sie looked at them again and saw two very young wide-eyed girls looking up admiringly at him.

“You don’t need to call me _your majesty_ ,” Sie said gently. “I’m nothing more but one of the many concubines that resides within this palace.”

“But,” one of them said, frowning. “But you are his majesty’s favorite and everyone knows one day you will be the queen. We came here to learn how to be a queen’s companions.”

“I don’t—”

“Oh no,” another voice said from behind. “You got the news too late.This person here is no longer his majesty’s favorite, there are some pretty interesting rumors running around the palace these days, did you know, foreigner?”

As Sie turned to face the owner of the voice he came face to face with the head of the previous king’s harem. Zamarrid was a voluptuous woman in her mid-thirties with long legs and well-shaped breasts, her hair was long and her clothes really never covered much of her assets. She smiled mockingly and walked sinuously towards him.

“Some people have been advising me to seduce the king, now that you are no longer holding his interest.”

Sie remained silent.

“Oh,” she said. “What is it? Are you angry, foreigner?”

“His majesty can do what he pleases,” Sie said calmly. “After all, I’m just another servant of his.”

Zamarrid narrowed her eyes. “I bet you are.”

“Indeed.”

“Perfect manners,” the woman ridiculed. “That won’t help you much when the king finally tosses you aside and the whole bunch of nobles who have always desired you in the court has spread your legs and fucked you raw until you bleed.”

“Like happened to you?” Sie asked quietly.

Zamarrid inhaled sharply at that –wrath, shame and pain flickered through her eyes in an instant. “Say what you want, as after it happens I’ll come and laugh long and hard at you.”

“If fortune may wish so,” Sie said steadily, already dismissing the discussion and turning towards the place where the cooks kept the infusions and beverages.

Zamarrid seethed at the dismissal and stomped towards him. “You act all high and mighty and yet you are nothing more than an overpriced whore,” she hissed, lifting her hand with the clear intention of delivering a strike.

Sie stopped the blow and her hand and clasped his fingers tightly on her wrist. “I may be what you are saying,” he said icily,vibrant red eyes looking utterly cold. “But so are you and now I would wish for you to leave me to drink my infusion in peace, I’m tired.”

Zamarrid snatched her hand backwith a snarl on her lips as she walked away, accepting the temporary defeat.

“That was scary, your majesty,” one of the girls said softly, looking slightly pale.

“Just call me Sie, please.”

“But--”

“It’s alright.”

The girls nodded at that. “Would you like us to make you tea?”

Sie considered this; the truth was he had always supplied his own needs and had really never let any of the servants treat him as a high ranking person. He cooked his own meals (plus the king’s) and washed his own clothes, in reality he just preferred to feel useful.

Sie had obligations as well, of course. He had to prepare the king’s clothes for special meetings and choose the colors for the different attires his majesty had to change into.

He was also in charge of all the heads of the servants in the palace. The work kept him busy enough and he did get tired and yet he also liked to practice his dance as well –but that wasn’t an obligation, it was more of a choice.

“If you wish so,” Sie said gratefully. “I would appreciate it dearly.”

“Yes,” both of the girls answered at once.

Sie smiled then, as he waited patiently for the tea to boil.

 

\---

 

“You are worried about something, aren’t you?”

“His majesty has been refusing to eat again,” Sie answered stiffly as he looked down at the fabrics he had been given to choose from –seeing that a meeting with the council was approaching and the king had to be present in a new formal attire, this was a task he couldn’t keep postponing.

“I don’t understand,” the boy handing him the fabrics said, a frown on his face. “Why is it that you care if he eats or not? He is not our king. Or have you already forgotten?”

Sie sighed at that; of course a new servant of the castle who had been birthed and raised in Warf wouldn’t understand Sie’s concerns. Reigh was a good kid; he just sometimes didn’t have a filter between his brain and his mouth.

“You are young,” Sie said with a shrug, implying that age alone was enough for Reigh to not know better.

“No, I was sold to this awful place after my family lost its position at the Warf court, I know enough of the cruelty and greed buried deep in all of the men’s hearts so don’t treat me like a child. I’m not that naïve!”

“You miss your home and your family, that’s why you are bitter,” Sie rebuked, finally picking a fabric dyed a deep royal blue that he had no doubt would suit his majesty’s eyes.

“And you don’t?” Reigh retorted, affronted. “These people, they are savages! They do as they please, they are loud and unpolished and they have slaves… I have seen some of them walking with their feet bare and worse than that, I have seen some engaged in sex in the middle of the day in public places!”

“I have never forgotten home, I just got used to it,” Sie answered back calmly. In a way it was the truth but not all of it; more than home he missed his family, his mother and sisters and…

Although ten years had passed and he had gotten used to the life he currently had, when Reigh had come five months ago, with his blond hair, fair skin and pale blue eyes, Sie had remembered someone he had preferred to forget a very long time ago, to spare himself the pain.

Reigh made him remember _that person_ too much and not only that. His talks about the lands his family had lost in Warf, his distaste for the heat, his high education and perfect manners. The love the kid professed to his country and the devotion towards his king… all of it had awakened something repressed deep inside Sie that had been dead for so long. It was no wonder he got more and more restless with every passing day. He missed Warf but he wasn’t a free man and there was no way he could ever leave the palace.

That was one of the reasons he had been begging his majesty for freedom.

“I don’t comprehend your devotion towards the blue king,” Reigh spat with disdain. “He took you as his whore, stripped you of your rights and made you something close to a queen but not really that… why should you care about him? In the first place, you have never really answered me, what part of Warf are you from? What is your last name? Why did you end up here?” Reigh questioned starting to fold the fabrics to store the unused ones away.

Sie shook his head. “I can’t answer your questions but I’ll tell you this: the majority of people that live within this palace… they are big-hearted, they will warm up to you if you let them. The king didn’t take anything for me, every choice I made led me to where I’m today and I would do it again if the need arose. His majesty is a good man, and very wise king, so don’t speak ill of him.”

Azraq was different from anything Sie had ever known and it was true he did want to leave and often asked the king for that but it really had nothing to do with the man. It was the nostalgia, it was the missing a part of himself so strongly that sometimes he had difficulty breathing. He missed Warf with the cold, the snow, the people and the food. The customs, even.

Sie just missed home but he wouldn’t blame his majesty now for the choices he had made when they both had been so green to understand the ways of the world.

Righ snorted. “Fine, do as you please… you know where to find me anyway. Go after the blue king if that’s what you want.”

“It’s time for him to take his lunch,” Sie mumbled distractedly, inspecting the fabric he had picked to utmost detail. “I need to go but you will take this to the head seamstress and you will tell her I need the attire for tomorrow morning to see if it fits his majesty properly before the meeting, do you understand me?”

Reigh nodded with clear lack of enthusiasm but Sie knew he would comply with his orders.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Sie said as he passed and ruffled the kid’s hair as a form of goodbye.

After that he hurried to the kitchens and got to work in what he would feed his majesty that evening. He settled for light bread, cheese, sliced fruit and a glass of wine. Azraq was a picky eater and even on good days when he was willing to eat it took monumental effort from Sie to manage to store in him enough nourishment to keep him from collapsing altogether; the days when he had just been refusing to eat were disastrous. Sie took the tray and hurried towards the reading rooms. He was sure his majesty would be there at this hour so he didn’t even bother to ask his location.

He located the room soon enough and stopped himself shortly of entering without knocking, it was a bad habit he was struggling to fix, seeing as his majesty had stopped granting him free access to any room he pleased.

Sie swallowed, remembering that things between them had been strained. There were rumors running wild around the palace about them, about him and about how his majesty had been acting weird… Still, he had a job to finish so he wouldn’t let anything deter him from it.

Sie knocked politely on the reading room door and waited patiently for a response. He almost expected Zanbaq's harsh tone to answer for his majesty like it had happened before but instead Azraq's detached voice resonated through the halls. “Come in.”

Sie didn’t waste any more time and entered the rooms swiftly. He let out a breath of relief he didn’t even know he had been holding at seeing that Zanbaq was nowhere in sight. “Your majesty, it’s time for your lunch.”

Azraq lifted his gaze from the papers he was singing and stared directly at him. Sie stared back. His majesty was attractive, Sie had even heard more than one girl smitten with his looks go about how they would like for him to make them his queen, his concubine ~~s~~ or even something less than that and Sie understood why, he was no blind man. The king had hard blue eyes that reflected the color of the sea, dark short wavy hair and tan skin. He was tall and every movement he made looked measured and elegant. He didn’t speak much and had a distant air around him that made it difficult for his subjects and other noble members of the court to approach him.

“I’m not hungry,” Azraq answered, finally lowering his gaze again to the papers on his desk. “I’ll eat later, go rest.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Sie answered back softly. He crossed the distance and reached the enormous table where Azraq was currently hunched over a good pile of papers. His majesty's graceful writing sprawled over the half of them.

“You need to eat,” Sie said gently, placing the tray in the table away from the papers to avoid some form of spilling.

“There’s no need for you to do this every day,” the king answered listlessly. “I don’t need the food.”

“But you do,” Sie said patiently, reaching careful fingers towards the king’s face. He caressed Azraq’s cheek delicately, a feather light touch. “You need to eat or you will get sick, your majesty, and you know how much it cos--”

“Stop it,” Azraq said at last, his brilliant blue eyes shuttered and cold, retreating from the gentle touch.

Sie stared surprised at that; he took his hand back slowly and for a moment he didn’t know what to say. He was at a loss for words. His majesty had never, in ten years, restricted his concubine from touching him.

The king hunched over the papers even more. “I’m not, not hungry right now,” he rasped, not really bothering to make eye contact. “but I’ll eat later. Just leave the food and go finish your work.”

Sie repositioned the tray far away enough to not cause any accident but close enough for the king to pick anything if he as so much as wished it. “Alright,” he finished quietly, exiting the rooms without anything else to say. His footsteps were soundless as he walked away.

“Oh there you are!” Reigh complained, trailing after him. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Yes?”

“The old hag asks if you will be needing new robes as well? She says the blue king always lets you attend council meetings or something… so I promised I would come back with your answer as soon as I could get a hold of you.”

Sie stilled.

A month ago without a doubt he would have answered yes… Now, however…

He tried to form the words once again but it was futile; his throat felt tight, his body felt heavy and his lungs burned with every breath he took. “No,” he managed finally. “I don’t think I will need it.”

“Fine, I’ll go tell her.”

Sie watched him disappear between the empty halls of the palace and for the first time in many years he had the unusual disposition of reaching out and asking for some company. His hand stayed stretched midway tough, and he didn’t call the boy back.

It was an unusual feeling, this one, it tore at his core and settled deep inside him, expanding like a rotten wound. Loneliness was an ugly thing and Sie discovered with a heavy heart, he wasn’t used to it.

He kept walking and, after finishing some other errands, he was finally able to retire partially to his rooms--the royal rooms, his majesty’s rooms.

Once inside he sighed and leaned his forehead against the closed door. He felt tired.

A knock took him out of it, however. And Sie had to straighten again and open to answer the person calling for him. A young maid peered up at him and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“Malika,” she said with heavy accent, looking almost contrite. “Lord Zanbaq has asked me to move his majesty’s clothes out of this room. I asked around and finally my superior asked his majesty as well, he did grant his permission. Um… can I?”

Sie licked his lips and moved from the door, offering a short nod. He sat in one of the polished chairs the room had with all its cushions and luxury and wondered aloud about something the whole palace had been wondering about for a time now. “Is… Is he not coming back?”

The young maid looked at him apologetically as she folded the clothes. “I’m sorry, Malika,” she said. “I wouldn’t know.”

And of course she wouldn’t know, Sie felt stupid then. Azraq didn’t need to explain himself to anyone and his decisions weren’t really questioned… so there was no way a simple maid would know something of such magnitude. It was silly of him but he had hoped, that maybe, somehow, his majesty had sent some kind of message of explanation with her.

“I’ll be finished soon,” the maid said. “I can do anything the Malika wishes afterwards.”

Sie shook his head. “You can go.”

It would be another sleepless night.

 

\---

 

Sie awoke startled once again deep in the night and this time it wasn’t insomnia. A heavy body was draped over him and a pair of chapped lips had been kissing his neck.

He didn’t trash or scream, nor did he get bothered. He knew the person pinning him down. He would know that smell anywhere, clean, almost sterile with just a little mix of tangerine. “Your majesty?” Sie whispered in the dark and the person above him quietened.

Azraq looked at him then and Sie could see how his usual serious distant eyes seemed unfocussed and really muddled. “What is it?” Sie asked softly, alarmed at the state his majesty was currently in.

“Someone drugged me,” Azraq answered simply as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. “After I finished the wine you left hours ago, I asked for more, a woman brought a bottle to me, she left it there and I drank.”

“But you usually know when the wine or food are poisoned ” Sie admitted quietly. Many people forgot but Sie at least knew this much. Azraq had been a warrior before being king, he knew many things and poisons was one of his specialties.

“Yes,” the king admitted. “I drank it anyway.”

Sie frowned, concern written over his lively red-amethyst eyes. “Why would you do that?” he asked, carefully cupping the king’s face between his fingers.

Azraq shrugged.

“Your majesty—" Sie started but the king interrupted him with a kiss. It wasn’t even intrusive just a touch of lips against lips.

“I feel hot and lonely,” his majesty confessed in one slow breath.

And it was explanation enough. It made sense why the king who had been withdrawn for days now blurted his feelings easily, why he had let Sie touch him. The drug must have been an aphrodisiac, a refined sort of poison that had been used to keep the concubines in the harem docile to their masters' wishes in the past. It lowered inhibitions and Sie had no doubt someone had heard about the king moving out of his favorite’s room that evening and had probably assumed it was a good time to act.

“Would you like me to do something about it? Or maybe you wish to do it yourself?” Sie asked tentatively.

“Yes,” the king breathed softly and then stilled frowning. “No, I can’t--”

“Your majesty?” Sie asked, lifting up his legs and spreading them wide enough to fit the other man in-between. He rolled his hips experimentally and Azraq drew in a distorted breath.

“it’s alright,” Sie whispered in his majesty’s ear, lowering both arms around the king’s neck. “I want you.”

It started frenzied at first, a clash of teeth and tongue, tangled limbs and a rocking motion. Azraq fucked him hard like they were both dying or would die if they didn’t finish soon. It was over too soon but then Azraq rolled him over and entered him again right after their first orgasm. The second time was slower, more sensual and Azraq hit his prostate with every thrust, kissing Sie’s back and licking every protrusion of his vertebrae.

They both groaned at a particular deep shove and Azraq dragged him over to change the angle. Sie moaned at that, clenching his hands over the sheets and rubbing his own erection with the mattress. It was torture, he was oversensitive and he cried out loudly every time Azraq changed the rhythm.

He panted in the pillows and arched his back with every slap of flesh against flesh. He closed his eyes and felt his second orgasm approaching fast. He was flushed and worked up, he was hard and leaking.

Azraq grunted again and after another thrust it was over. Sie felt the sticky mess in his entrance and shivered instantly. He convulsed and that was it, he reached completion without being touched. Azraq collapsed over him, breathing hard and for a moment Sie wanted to turn back, see him face to face, bring him closer, to smooth the tangles in the soft tresses of dark hair and roam his hands on the other’s back, to lull him to sleep like he had done many times before. This time, he wasn’t sure he was allowed to do it anymore so he stayed quiet and fell asleep relatively quickly afterwards.

He awoke once again to a pair of lips teasing his nipples, licking and biting softly. He blinked awake and felt how Azraq was already inside him again hot, hard and aching–no doubt thanks to the drug.

He was sore already but he complied again, opening his legs and letting Azraq take what he needed, he moaned softly at every slap and finally in a position to do so, he reached out and brought Azraq closer, opening his lips and kissing him senseless.

Sie kissed him again and again and again, almost drunk in a feeling he couldn’t pinpoint but it chased the loneliness away and brought warmth to his chest.

Azraq finished quickly this time and he passed out afterwards. Sie hugged him closer and brought the quilt over the both of them as it happened in any desert that their days were scorching but their nights were cold.

Sie held Azraq softly to his chest and traced patters in the other’s back, touching his sides and his face carefully. He noticed then, how the man was thinner than usual and how dark circles were under his eyes –obviously thanks to bad nutrition and too much stress. He frowned; he would feed him tomorrow even if Azraq refused, he would see him eat not matter what it cost him.

He fell asleep afterwards, feeling marginally better and didn’t wake up until late morning the next day. He was alone but he was happy and, he supposed, well rested.

Sie left the bed, washed himself quickly and covered his body in only one soft linen robe. It was too big on him and he noticed he had picked one of Azraq’s old sleeping clothes way too late as he was already out of his--the royal--rooms. Which meant the maid hadn’t taken all the clothing… It was a comforting thought, somehow.

Sie was lost in thought as he crossed the hall towards the reading room. The king honestly hated paperwork and the majority of the time worked more with the soldiers than with treaties but every time the council called a meeting Azraq buried himself in dozens and dozens of papers that had been postponed from previous days. Sie was sure to find the king in his study. He wanted to see him, he wanted to plead him to eat, he wanted to--

"Stop right there, sahla," Sie suddenly heard Zanbaq's voice.

He stopped and looked towards the other man who made no move to hide his obvious disgust ~~.~~

“If he had wanted to see you, he would have stayed,” Zanbaq spoke with his arms crossed and leaning against one of the pillars of the palace. “He doesn’t.”

Sie didn’t respond at first but after a while he saw no point in staying silent. “If his majesty doesn’t wish to see me he can tell me that himself.”

Zanbaq smiled a mocking kind of smile. “So you two fucked, you are wearing his clothes an now you think you both are alright again?”

“I don’t presume anything. I did my job,” Sie said resolutely. “And now I wish to speak with--”

“Yes,” another unexpected voice interrupted them. Sie turned around to see Azraq looking directly at him. He had come behind them unnoticed; he was holding an orange in his hand so the most reasonable explanation was that he had been in the kitchens and just now had seen them and decided to join their conversation.

Sie stance relaxed, “Your majesty,” and nodded a greeting. “I want to speak with you.”

“I’m sorry but my time is limited and from what I’ve gathered you think your job was done last night so there’s nothing else we need to discuss.”

Sie paled a goosd two shades after Azraq’s words. It was something that no longer bothered him anymore, not when people insulted him with it or the members of the council leered at his body for the nature of his status.

He didn’t mind Zamarrid torrid offenses or Zanbaq’s preferred ‘sahla’ that translated like ‘easy one’. He had learned to live with it, to accept what it meant, to talk about it not with shame but with enough dignity given his circumstances. Of course he could sugarcoat it all he wanted it but in the end it was what it was. There were many who had called him a whore to his face and others who did it behind his back. Still, in ten years Azraq had never so much as insinuated it. The king called him by his name and had always referred to him as a sort of consort.

It had been enough.

It had been more than enough.

And suddenly Sie couldn’t breathe. He didn’t remember how it was that he was supposed to do it.

“I need to go,” Azraq said with an unreadable expression on his face.

Zanbaq titled his head and watched the king go. “Well I was here only to tell you, your position at the council has been temporarily revoked, you will not be needed to attend tomorrow’s morning assembly so do not worry about it.”

“Are you enjoying this?” Sie asked feeling how the numbness started to fade, transforming into anger.

Zanbaq stared at him; there was no malicious smile this time. “I have had better days but this one is not so bad,” the man said sincerely.

“I still outrank you,” Sie said quietly. He had never liked it. The status. He was something like a queen but he wasn’t really that. He was something like a head chief of the servants but he really wasn’t that either, still in all the in-between Azraq had had given him a position, the first courtesan with enough power to decide just one step below the king. The council and the elders hadn’t been happy with it and even less when it was obvious the king had just been one step away from taking a foreigner male as the Malika, the queen.

Azraq had only been stopped because if he did take him as consort there would be no formal heir and the laws of the elders dictated he would have to take another wife, the second consort who would bear the king’s children and would have the council's favor.

His majesty had said it was as good as painting a moving target on Sie’s back.

“Not for long,” Zanbaq answered lazily. Malicious green eyes glittered in the middle of the day.

And Sie understood the threat for what it was, a promise. It wouldn’t take long now or so the green-eyed man wanted him to believe.

The loneliness came back then with vengeance. He felt exhausted as he retreated to his rooms, all the while he walked the enormous white halls of the palace, thinking of snow.

Outside the sun shone brightly and it was a beautiful day to be in the gardens, Sie just decided to return to bed. He thought about sunflowers in frozen fields and people running in the snow with wool coats and flushed pale cheeks.

He thought about his mother with her light brown hair and her kind smile, the lullabies she used to sing to him. His twin sisters who at this time must have been in their teenage years, how he used to play with them and they fought over who would marry him with transparent innocence as they didn’t want to be parted with him. He would scold them and then promise the both of them he would get two princes for each.

He thought of home.

He thought of blond hair, honey colored eyes and a really bad temper.

In the end he thought it was a good thing what was currently happening. With every single thing that was taken from him, every responsibility, it was one chain less to break.

After his majesty was done with him then maybe freedom would be the next step.

The thought didn’t take the pained feeling and the aching solitude of his chest, however.

 

\---

A/N:

And well, thank you to the people that alerted or read the first chapter. I wasn’t planning on keep posting this story on this site but after some consideration I guess, I relented anyway… As always I <3 feedback.

 

 


	3. The king's favorite II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Moria.

A warning for this chapter: mentions of underage sex –like really, really underage. It’s just mentioned, not explicit.

\---

 

Sie stared warily at the leash in his hands. He had never liked to do this but with so many people coming to the palace over the next days, it looked like he had no choice.

If for bad fortune an accident happened, the guests wouldn’t be forgiving and seeing as the majority of them were part of the council or family of some member of it, it was the most he could do to avoid unwanted attention.

After all he wasn’t even an associate anymore.

He sighed and walked faster towards his destination, one of the main gardens. Once closer to his objective, Sie measured his steps and controlled his breathing. It wouldn’t do to be agitated for this.

He entered the lush greenery carefully, the third garden wasn’t as beautiful or as priced as the first or the second one but it could hold well on its own. An assortment of different flowers that withstood the temperature elegantly, some shade trees and a range of various  decorations, columns, statues framed a large-sized pond. It could be described as a  peaceful, calming place.

It was something of a little oasis between the high sun that pierced Karlann day after day. Karlaan was a magnificent and prosperous country indeed but as everything that was too good in life, it had its downs. It was a desert and what little greenery it had, had to be treated carefully .

The gardens of the palace, as far as Sie knew, had been transplanted from Solnce a hundred of years ago by one of the previous kings of Karlann who had had to please one of his many wives, the most dear to his heart and also the one that died the youngest.

His footsteps took him quietly towards his objective and right there between the greenery and a bunch of daisies sat the animal he had come to leash, undisturbed. Sensing Sie’s presence, it wagged its tail happily and stretched with the intention of moving to greet its master but didn’t move.

Wasser was an enormous white wolf Sie had brought with him to the palace when he had left Warf ten years ago. Back then, it had been a malnourished and broken puppy that had been left to die by its parent’s in the middle of one of the main streets of the capital as he had probably shown he was the weakest of the litter.

Sie had found him almost dead after one of the worsts snowfalls Warf had had that year. He had done everything in his power to care for the pup but even after that, the little wolf had lost its sight.

He had kept him anyway, named him and brought him along when it was decided he was to move from his home country to Karlann. If Sie was to be sincere with himself, he had brought him for selfish reasons… to have something familiar in a unfamiliar land, not even stopping to think that a traditional snow baby wolf from Warf wouldn’t survive the heat of Karlann on the love of its master alone.

Just four months after their moving Wasser had become sick. Sie had been inconsolable for weeks until Azraq, with an irritable disposition had taken the mutt from Sie’s trembling arms and  dropped it in the middle of the room the head of the royalhealers had been occupying at the time.

The man had been livid with anger at being obliged to look out for a foreign animal, pet of a low-listed concubine when he existed to explicitly heal the members of the royal family.

Still, Azraq had calmly said it was that or ordering his healer hands to be chopped off as an example of how useless things were disposed of in his ruling.

It had been ten years since then and Wasser was still around, running freely through the gardens and with an endurance of the sun even superior that the one Sie had developed.

The wolf wiggled its tail once again and barked happily at its master but didn’t get up. Sie paused; usually at identifying him his pet would run towards him and make Sie start chasing him around until both were exhausted.

This time; however; the oversized dog didn’t even try and Sie frowned as worry started to seep through his heart. Not all the people at the palace were as kind as Sie would have liked. For the most part they were and they accepted him well enough, his weird-colored hair and eyes, his fair skin, his manners and even, as an extension, his wolf. But there was also a fraction that had refused to accept him, calling him a sorcerer of the northern lands that had bewitched their king, that had made him weak to the northerners and not fit to rule Karlann – they had tried to hurt him badly before and not even Wesser had come unscratched out of it.

Sie approached carefully and touched the wolf’s fur tenderly. As a response Wesser held out a paw. Sie smiled at it and grabbed the soft paw in a form of salute. The wolf didn’t look sick so he put the leash around his dog’s neck carefully and waited to see if Wesser had any protest to bark. Still, when he tugged at the leash to make the animal move, it didn’t budge.

“What is it?” Sie asked curiously. “Why are you not moving?”

Something behind Wesser moved in that instant and Sie understood then that his wolf refused to move because he was guarding someone. Seeing that even though Sie and Wasser were tolerable for them, almost all the people of the palace but one found Wesser frightening, Sie suspected he knew who was the person being shielded by his pet.

Sie knelt, hugged Wesser out of habit and peered at the person resting over his wolf’s back. His guess was correct. Azraq lay there, close to Wesser’s pelt, with his eyes closed and the new blue robes Sie had just commissioned days ago in total disarray. He looked like a horse had trampled him, he looked like anything but a king.

“Why didn’t you tell me his majesty was here?” Sie asked the animal playfully. Wasser had chosen that moment to start licking wetly at his face.

“Because I asked him to hide me,”Azraq answered quietly from his spot, still with his eyes closed. “I am sorry, I should have asked for your permission to come and see him.”

“Of course not your majesty, I belong to you and so everything mine is yours as well. You are free to do as you please and more than that, Wesser likes you.”

Azraq opened his eyes. “I do hope so because I--”

A high-pitched giggling interrupted them at that moment and Sie saw how, with just that, the king who didn’t complain at being feed poison paled to an unhealthy color in matter of seconds.

“I was hoping Wesser was scary enough for her and that it would deter her from finding me,” his majesty admitted, defeated.

“Are you upset about something, my king?” Sie inquired still holding Wesser close, his fingers forming lazy patterns over the wolf’s pelt.

“All the members of the council that traveled from the distant lands towards Karlann brought their daughters with them and the ones more daring even their own wives. It has been barely a day and I have already received more marriage offers than what I got last year on my birth day and let me tell you that day alone I thought I had reached a mark. Worse than that, not all of the council are here yet, I am worried about the half that is missing and with that half more women I will have to refuse yet again and--”

“My beloved future intended, where are you?” a high-pitched voice, accompanied by more giggling Sie finally recognized, shrieked out aloud. Her voice was getting closer to the area they were currently in.

“Amara is already here,” Sie finished for him.

“I know your stance of this topic,” Azraq started, obviously uncomfortable. “About how you think me being the right age already to take a wife but right now that is the last of my concerns and I really don’t have the time--”

“Azraq?” the voice called again. It sounded almost next to them and his majesty actually cringed.

“You can use me,” Sie answered at last.

Azraq looked at him. Clear rich blue eyes, like the sea on a calm day pinned him down and Sie had to suppress a shiver. He waited for the refusal, as it had been lately with the king; every time Sie offered some kind of company or comfort, it was refused soundly. This time, the refusal didn’t come.

As the giggling got higher, Azraq finally nodded and Sie freed Wesser of his embrace, crawling instead towards the man. He straddled Azraq’s lap and waited for him to do something.  The king, however, remained stiff under him.

“This won’t work if you don’t touch me, your majesty,” Sie offered quietly, not knowing what to do or what to say to make the man a little more responsive.

Azraq lifted his arms, hesitated for a moment and then finally proceeded to embrace Sie in a loose hug. The smell of freshness and tangerine immediately assaulted his senses and Sie closed his eyes, returning the embrace tightly. He inhaled Azraq’s scent and remembered how there had been a time when he had actually dreaded that same aroma -- not because Azraq had somehow mistreated him, he hadn’t even knew what the man was really like back then, but because of all the fear of the Karlann barbarians that Warf instilled in its habitants .

Azraq had certainly proven to be more than the brute, blood-thirsty blue king all the people in Warf thought him to be.

They hadn’t really had a good start back in the days. Sie had resented Azraq. There was no point in lying to himself now, perhaps he had had the right to the restenment but at the same time he had always known that almost all the responsibility for his predicament lay with his own choices  and the king was not at fault.

It hadn’t been easy and Sie had fought tooth and nail every bit of kindness Azraq had offered. If he was to be honest, in their early years his only mission in life had probably been to make the ruler’s life miserable.

Still, the man had never really paid back in beatings or, what Sie had feared the most as it had been clearly stated he was to become a bed slave, rapes. Azraq hadn’t been what Sie  had expected -- he did have a temper but he tended to keep a really tight reign over it -- and still to this day he wasn’t really sure what to make of the man.

When Sie had first met him, he had thought the man looked lonely with a pitiful aura of sadness trailing permanently after him. Even now, having known him for years, Sie still thought the melancholy seemed to be a perpetual companion of the man. Azraq had never explained why.

“Why is it that you always seem sad?” Sie had asked once when he had stopped being difficult and started accepting he would not be leaving the man’s side anytime soon.

“I don’t,” Azraq had answered simply .

“But you do,” Sie had pressed.

The king had just shrugged and said, “You will get used to it.”

And in a sense maybe Sie had. Still, after he had come to accept life in the palace, after he had agreed to start to play  his role as a concubine and had begun to see Azraq for what he really was and not as his enemy, Sie had hoped to ease something of the sadness away.

It had never really worked that way.

“Above everything I do consider you a friend,” Sie said, still enclosed in the man’s arms. “and I want you to be ha–”

“Azraq!” a high feminine voice howled, interrupting them,  making Sie sigh internally.

“What is the meaning of this?” the girl demanded, rounding on them looking affronted.

“As you can see, young princess,” Sie started lifting his head towards the girl standing just a few meters of them. “His majesty feels tired and doesn’t want to speak with anyone at the moment.”

“Then why are you here?” the girl asked petulantly. She couldn’t be older than twelve. Sie still remembered the last time he had seen Amara four years ago, still squealing at everything or anything that caught her attention, dressed in a fancy dresses and oversized ribbons. She had been a child.

“My lady, do you really wish to impose on your poor intended?” Sie asked, hoping to look serious, stifling the urge to smile at the priceless face the princess was making.

“I– I…” she stammered, not knowing what to say.

He didn’t mean ill to her by this, just to stop her attempts at bothering his majesty. After all, Amara was the daughter of one of the truly few people in Karlan who had never made him feel like an outsider—who had tried to understand and help him when he had needed it.

“A good wife would never do this,” Sie finished, trying to aim for a disappointed look but not really managing it. The girl shifted uncomfortably under his stare and looked away. It was obviously working.

“I… I shouldn’t have imposed,” she said finally, puffing her cheeks and enduring her embarrassment the best she could. “I am sorry, my dear future husband, I’ll try harder next time,” Amara finished quickly and nodded at them, completely oblivious to the fact that the position they were in wasn’t exactly proper.

She turned on her heels and ran away towards the palace, her face red.

“That was actually simpler than I thought,” Azraq said well after she had left.

Azraq seemed almost normal, he hadn’t pushed him away yet in all this time and they were having a normal conversation in the shade of a tree. It felt almost like it used to be.

“Yes,” Sie said, humming happily.

“You don’t need to chain him,” Azraq said after a while looking at the chain Sie still held between his fingers. “He won’t hurt anyone.”

“I can’t take the risk,” Sie said simply. Wesser was family and you did what you needed to do, no matter the price, to protect them.

“He won’t like it,” Azraq sighed. “We will just close the gates to the garden while the council happens. Don’t chain him.”

“Is it alright, your majesty?”

Azraq nodded, lowering his arms from Sie’s waist. “I need to go.”

“You should rest,” Sie offered gently.

Azraq looked away, for a moment lost in thought. After a while  he focused again on the man in front of him. “Is it that you wish to pick her?” The intense, indecipherable blue eyes remained locked with his own.

“Your majesty?”

“A while ago, you said I had to take a wife,” Azraq said plainly. “Are you planning on picking her for me? After all, it would be your job to teach her, am I right? It’s what the tradition dictates.”

“Are you planning on getting married soon, then?” Sie asked carefully, ignoring the distressing pressure in his chest. It was true he had said Azraq needed an heir. In fact, he still thought he did but the night he had first addressed the topic he had been particularly vicious about it, about the supposed future wife and about leaving. Two weeks ago, the first night the king had slept away from the royal rooms, Sie had been tired, frustrated, sad and angry. At himself, mostly. He tried to not remember the reason but failed. He did remember, though, that it had been tied to Warf as always—to a letter that had come with very specific proposition, an invitation.

Sie shook off the memory and came back to the present. The king wanted to espouse someone. He was supposed to feel happy about this, wasn’t he?

“Not really,” Azraq said.

Sie looked steadily at the king, waiting for more information to be offered, but the man remained stubbornly silent. “If that is what your majesty wishes, then yes, I would pick her for you.”

“And then you would leave and run straight to Warf, am I right?” Azraq murmured without inflection in his voice, the usual bitterness that this topic usually brought out in him absent.

Sie looked down; whatever this was he wouldn’t lie now. “Yes.” It was a simple affirmation, and somehow the weight of it felt like he had signed his life away, once more.  
  
“What about your debt?”

Sie looked towards the king again. Azraq, weirdly enough,  wasn’t angry, his gaze had focused on Wesser who had somehow managed to sneak behind Sie to reach Azraq’s hand and lick it enthusiastically.

“I don’t know,” he replied truthfully.

Azraq nodded and proceeded to pet Wesser’s head. “I need to go,” he repeated again before cautiously lifting Sie from his lap and placing him aside. “The council will be here shortly, I will lunch with them today. Don’t worry about it.”

“As you say your majesty.”

 

\---                   

 

“All of this is useless, I don’t understand shit,” Reigh sighed, frustrated.

“You won’t understand if you don’t read it” Sie chided him from his spot on the other side of the table the both of them were occupying. “I’m not even teaching you the whole of Karlann mother’s tongue, just some basic words.”

“Do you understand it?” Reigh asked, wrinkling his nose. “So many weird letters and the fucking accent, I don’t even know how to begin with it.”

“I understand it,” Sie nodded towards the book on in his space. All of it was of course written in Karlann language. “I can write as well and to some extent speak it but my accent is thick and my pronunciation sounds off.”

“I don’t even know why we are doing this, everyone here speaks Solce, after all it was agreed between all the kingdom’s that it should be the standard tongue.”

Sie sighed at this and closed his book. The massive halls of the palace library, engulfed by total silence in the mid-morning,  gave off an almost eerie atmosphere. “Knowledge will never be  taken away from you, no matter where you are or what you end up doing. Warf has always valued knowledge above all, you should know this.”

Reigh pouted. “I know but it’s so boring.”

“Well, if it was easy it wouldn’t be a punishment, would it?” Sie asked. The kid groaned and buried his nose in the books again. “Maybe if you find this task to be so boring, it will help you think twice before being so rude towards other slaves and servants.”

“I didn’t do anything,” the kid complained, looking affronted again.

“Yes you did,” Sie answered back calmly. “One of the girls assigned to cleaning the west wing rugs complained to me about your lack of manners. You called her ugly and incompetent when she offered to help you with your own load of work.”

Riegh swallowed hard. “Well, yes, she was uh, well… not pretty.”

Sie tilted his head. “Try again.”

Reigh looked at him, blinked and nodded. “She was a very nice girl but she didn’t hold my interest?”

“Harder.”

“Uh—” The kid said, still not sure what else he was supposed to follow with.

“I’m listening,” Sie focused his attention on the book again, opened it and kept reading where he had left off. He flipped one page, then another. It took more than two minutes before Reigh spoke again.

“She is a very nice girl and anyone would have been flattered  by her offer but I was unfortunately distracted and so it was impossible for me to accept her help?” Reigh paused and looked at his tutor. Sie had stopped his reading and was obviously listening. “And I will offer an apology to her first thing tomorrow morning when I see her at her shift?”

Sie nodded at that. “It will do. You still have four hours of study left, pay attention to your books.”

Reigh groaned again. “I can’t. I was never good at this, not even back at home. My teachers weren’t patient, used to say I was too slow.”

“Everyone learns at their own pace.” Sie said offhandedly, passing the pages of his book with outstanding speed. “I have always liked to read,” he added as an afterthought.

“Even if the book is written in Karlannise?”

“Yes,” Sie said, still engrossed in the contents of the book. “I learned to appreciate the language.”

“Why?”

“I sometimes read out aloud to his majesty. He is a good listener.”

Reigh frowned. If it was at the mention of Azraq or about something else, Sie wasn’t sure. “I thought you'd said you had trouble speaking Karlann’s tongue?”

“I do. He used to correct my pronunciation and explain some of the words I didn’t understand.”

“A king wasting his time in schooling a concubine?”Reigh lifted an eyebrow. “It’s unheard off.”

Sie shook his head. Fondness spread over him and he had to smile at memories that rushed forward to his mind. “Not in here.”

Reigh looked at him suspiciously. “You are weird. Even if you are obviously not a native of this place, sometimes you seem like one.”

Sie shrugged. “It doesn’t matter at any rate.”

“I guess if you say so then it doesn’t.” Reigh contemplated his books and bit his lower lip after a while. “Sie, can I ask you something?” His question was hesitant almost fearful in a very unusual way.

Sie nodded, curious.

“Have you ever been in love?” Reigh asked, fidgeting in his seat, eyebrows furrowing and hands twitching. “Um, I just–” he hesitated but after some internal struggle, he gave in and continued his explanation. “I, the girl who offered help to me… she wanted a kiss as payback and I… In Warf there’s, there’s someone waiting for me.”

It was awkwardly endearing to hear a twelve year old ask about love.

“I–” Sie started but this time it was his turn to doubt.

_‘Do you love me?’ Azraq had said and Sie’s mind had drew a blank._

“Maybe,” Sie amended. “I were for a while when I was young. About your age, still living in Warf.” Of that at least he was sure. It had happened a long time ago but the feelings he had had were crystal clear to this day.

“Is this person waiting for you?”

Sie almost smiled at the irony, more of a grimace than an actual smile. He remembered the invitation that had come from Warf again. “No, he isn’t. Ten years is a long time to wait.”

Reigh deflated notably at this. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Our circumstances aren’t the same,” Sie offered as a form of comfort.

“No, well,” Reigh sighed. “I am just a ordinary working slave. I would have killed myself if I had been placed in the pleasure fraction.” There was no uncertainty in his voice regarding this.

“Life is too precious to be wasted in such a fashion,” Sie answered simply. Even if his luck had proven different and Azraq hadn’t turned to be the good man he was, Sie was still sure he would have never considered suicide as an option. It just went against him, his beliefs and his philosophy.

“That’s why you are where you are now,” Reigh spat disgusted, his amicable mood turning to sour.  “There’s no pride left in you. You have even forgotten how we place the honor before anything else in Warf.”

“Dying for honor is just another form of greed. I don’t intend to make you see the world as I do but at the very least I can tell you nothing is more worth than human life.”

“Even the love you had for the person that was left behind in Warf?” Reigh asked daringly.

Sie closed his eyes, feeling almost as if a pail of iced water had splashed over him. In the end that had been closer to the truth than any other excuse he could had come with.

Thinking about it now felt like an old wound that had never healed properly. It had never been cleaned and stitched up and instead had closed on its own, fighting infection and still hurting from time to time.

“I’m sure the person you left behind will wait for you,” Sie answered, opting for eluding Reigh’s previous question.

All the fight drained from Reigh at this, the worry seeping back into him instantly. “He is in a very high position,” the kid looked down. “He will probably be made to marry someone of his status or higher, his family never did approve of me.”

Sie didn’t know what to say to that. Warf and its customs had been unalterable for as long as Sie remembered.

“I was given five years to pay off the debt,” Reigh said, accepting his fate. “I will be seventeen when I’m finally freed from this awful place… I will look for him then, I… I promised I would remain faithful and that’s why I couldn’t kiss that girl back”

“Did you…” Sie narrowed his eyes in thought. In his heart Reigh was still just a child,  no matter what. That was why he probably felt uncomfortable in asking but it did stir his interest mildly. “Did you have sex with him?”

Reigh flushed bright scarlet and started fidgeting again. “Y-yes.” he mumbled clumsily, looking anywhere but at Sie’s face.

“I won’t scold you or punish you for it, I’m not your father,” Sie stated patiently. “I am only surprised that’s all, since you are very young.”

Reigh flushed brighter at that. “It… it was just once before I left.”

“I see.”

“What age were you when…you uh, you know?”

Sie smiled; it would probably be a shock for the poor kid. “Twenty.”

“I had never knew someone who had waited so long.”

“Things happen,” Sie said, not really bothered by it.

“The blue king?” Reigh was smart and he was unusually good with numbers, it came as no surprise that he had worked out the timeline.

“Yes. I was nineteen when I came here.”

Reigh looked down again, abashed and contrite. “I, I should have waited, shouldn’t I?”

“It’s alright if you weren’t forced into it… I am assuming, you wanted it, am I right?”

The kid just nodded, his face burning. “We had fooled around a couple of times before, just kissing and with our hands, we hadn’t really got further than that, he is a year older than me,” Reigh shrugged. “Then my family fell into disgrace and all our assets were sold. My mother was taken back by her family who never really approved of my father… He was not a noble. I was their only child. When even the house was not enough to settle the debt, it was decided by the state that I would be sold as well. My mother wasn’t there anymore and my father tried everything in his power to stop it but it wasn’t enough. I don’t blame him; I only hope he is well. The night before I complied with the slave request was the night we…”

“You had penetrative sex,” Sie supplied for him.

Reigh just nodded, still looking mortified by it.

Sie had picked up this much. Practically speaking, there were many forms of sex to engage and back in the day he and Azraq hadn’t  jumped to penetration until a while later, when he had felt ready. But from the way Reigh had addressed the whole issue it was clear enough.

“It hurt a lot,” Reigh added as an afterthought. “but he enjoyed it, and that made it worth it.”

Sie looked at him again, wondering. Reigh was sturdy-looking, tall for his age and lean but with defined muscle and for that reason Sie had automatically assumed the noble had bottomed for him. It turned out that wasn’t the case.

“It doesn’t have to hurt,” Sie offered carefully, not knowing if Reigh wanted his advice regarding this or not.

The kid just looked at him, wide-eyed and expectant. “What do you mean?”

“There are oils and ointments that make it easier…” Sie stopped at seeing the color of Reigh’s face; it had gone from red to pale to red again at an alarming speed. “We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“I just thought… the blood was supposed to play that part?”

Sie looked at him almost horrified at what he was hearing. “You did have sex with him willingly?” he asked again just to be on the safe side.

“Yes,” Reigh said quietly. “I thought… maybe that way he wouldn’t forget about me. I… I have always feared the day his family orders him to get married… I thought… If I couldn’t have him forever then I would settle at least for being the first person he has ever had sex with. I have known him all my life, really, since we were like five or something and I just…”

“You fell in love with him,” Sie said kindly.

“Yes.”

Sie sighed internally at what he was about to do. It was good he had never believed he would have children of his own because it was really obvious he would fail rather spectacularly at reprimanding them. “You can go.”

Reigh looked at him confused. “What?”

“Your study time for today is over. You can go, play outside or grab something to eat at the kitchens… I will see you tomorrow.”

“Uh…”

“Now. Before I change my mind.”

Reigh nodded frantically and scrambled to pick the books up and put them on their respective shelves quickly. “Thanks, uh, I’ll apologize, I promise.”

“See that you do.”

Young love was an interesting thing. Sie watched as Reigh exited the library almost tripping in his haste to leave, afraid his master would change his mind anytime. Reigh was young and yet Sie had seen it in his face, in the shining of his eyes when he had talked about the person he had left in Warf. The feeling was unequivocally there, raw, unpolished and a  bit confusing but there nonetheless. Love.

It was a long time before he left the library, paying only half attention to his book. For the remaining hours he thought about Azraq.

He didn’t know why.


	4. Interlude I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Moria

 

Vesna stares at him from afar. It’s early morning and the palace remains deadly silent. Warf remains as usual cold and utterly grey. He can’t feel his fingers thanks to the bitter, icy atmosphere around.

He wants to speak but he doesn’t know what to say. The oversized, light rosy night grown he is wearing, with all the ribbons and lace, threatens to swallow him whole. He feels small and inadequate.

Kalte turns his head, spots him and smiles. He gets up from his position over the reading table, stretches and advances towards him.

Kalte looks happy to see him; he is in a good mood at least. It won’t hurt today.

Vesna inhales sharply when Kalte’s hands touch his waist. It  is a firm touch, reassuring and possessive. He expects it when Kalte lift’s him up off his feet, he gets surprised,  however, when the other man nuzzles his neck.

Vesna closes his eyes and lets his breath turn ragged as Kalte bits hard on the tender skin of his collarbone. Kalte rearranges them quickly after that, securing him enough in order not to let him fall as they move. He knows where Kalte is taking him, he knows Kalte is already worked up.

His back hits the bed softly as Kalte lowers him onto it with delicate precision. It’s definitely an abrupt change from the  mood he was in yesterday. It will give time for the bruises to heal.

Kalte doesn’t wait after that, he lifts the nightgown slowly, caressing the skin of his legs as he goes. It’s intentional and Vesna understands that today is one of those very unusual days Kalte is feeling playful. He will probably drive him mad with need before doing anything else.

Kalte reaches for the vial Vesna keeps under the bed and opens it quickly, so yes, it only adds to his previous assumption, seeing as Kalte is planning on preparing him beforehand.

Vesna feels the fingers as they fumble at his entrance, caressing the ring of muscle slowly, almost carefully; they slip inside and coat the walls with a generous amount of oil. Kalte wants him to feel good.

So he relaxes and waits for what is to come. It doesn’t take much and, finally, when Kalte finds him loose enough he takes his fingers out and thrusts in.

Vesna arches his back and waits for the stretching burn but it doesn’t come—which he realizes later as he starts to bite back his moans in reaction to Kalte’s short’s movements. Today is really not about Kalte’s pleasure at all.

Kalte’s aim, as everything else he does in life is frighteningly accurate, and Vesna cries out as the hard pounding hits something inside him that makes him spasm with pleasure every time.

He feels delirious, feverish and he knows it won’t end quickly. Kalte will do anything in his power to make it last so he alternates his rhythm between slow and fast, going in softly at first and then speeding up. Vesna's cries turn into whimpers.

He knows he is close and so predictably Kalte stops all motions altogether. Vesna tries to open his eyes and focus on the man above him who is now playing with one of his nipples trough the fabric of the nightgown but he can’t. Kalte bites hard on the nipple and Vesna twists under him. Kalte groans at the feeling and starts moving again, this time faster than before.

“I love this dress on you,” Kalte says, voice rough, as he continues his precise hits on Vesna’s prostate.

He doesn’t answer, he knows even if Kalte is in a good disposition it would be too dangerous to push his limits and break the illusion. And it’s not as if he is coherent enough to manage it anyway.

Vesna feels it build in him like a crescendo and soon he is reaching climax, tightening around Kalte and panting hard afterwards.

Kalte thrust forward two times more and soon enough Vesna feels hot liquid filling his insides and leaking down his thighs.

“I wish to keep fucking you until you are totally ruined and you can no longer stand,” Kalte says, licking Vesna's ear and sounding like he would like another round anytime now.

Vesna doesn’t think he can take it.

“Ves,” Kalte says pulling out and bringing him forward to his chest. “Ves talk to me.”

Vesna doesn’t. He is feeling happy and he doesn’t want to hurt so he remains silent, breathing in Kalte’s scent. Closing his eyes and listening to the beat of his heart.

“Ves, I won’t… I know— I won’t do it today. Please talk to me… your words, the ones you always say to me when you think I’m sleep, I want to hear them now.”

Vesna goes still. He didn’t think Kalte would have picked his bad habit of telling him ‘I love you’ every night.

“I promise.”

“I love you, Kalte.” Vesna says finally, defeated.

Kalte, true to his word, doesn’t hit him or hurt him in any way after that. He keeps caressing his skin and humming happily while snuggling on his neck.

“I love you,” Vesna repeats because there’s a high probability he won’t get a chance to do it again.

Kalte just holds him tighter after that.


	5. The king's favorite III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Moria.

 

Sie stood still at the middle of the main side hall. A person was approaching quickly towards him and even from the current distance he could already tell who it was. He tried to contain a little smile when the person sprinted up towards him, light footsteps becoming fast and intent. Sie knew what the person intended to do by going so fast and so he waited patiently, with feet well placed on the ground. He would need all the balance he could get, after all.

The impact wasn’t as hard as Sie imagined, even if he was deprived of air momentarily. The person holding him close laughed and squeezed harder. “I can’t believe you never change no matter how long I’m gone.”

“I need to breathe, Hadid,” Sie answered, amused and still wheezing for air.

“Oh, oh of course,” the young man said sheepish, letting go of Sie. “I just... I was away for a year and then Zanbaq got ahead of me and left me in Airtafae city a week ago,” Hadid grumbled gloomily.

“Of course he did,” Sie sighed at the mention of Zanbaq’s name. “He wanted to see his majesty as soon as possible and you are no longer a child that needs his protection.”

“I’m only seventeen,” Hadid complained. “But when it is about my brother, Zanbaq just forgets I exist.”

Sie tilted his head at the younger man. It had been brief but just a moment ago he had felt bitterness in Hadid’s tone –probably because of Zanbaq and his blind loyalty towards his majesty. Hadid wasn’t a bad or selfish boy and he loved Azraq dearly but more than that Sie knew Hadid was more Zanbaq’s than anyone else's. It was no surprise: after all, Azraq had commended Hadid’s education to Zanbaq when the little prince was very young. When Sie had met him for the first time, almost ten years ago, the little prince had already been under Zanbaq’s care.

And even though Zanbaq and him had never gotten along, Hadid was an entirely different matter. They were friends, more than friends — they had promised to share blood when Hadid had been a child. It had started as a silly deal made between them consisting in cutting open their hand and then shook it in a greeting, making the blood mix. Over the years, however, it had become more than that; now they were brothers.

“Blood of my veins,” Sie started animatedly.

“Blood of my veins,” Hadid nodded happily. “How have you been?”

“Living,” Sie answered flippantly.

“It’s not enough,” the younger prince shook his head. “You are the _Malika_ ,the life of Karlann, by all means you should be doing better than just living.”

“I am not the _Malika,_ ” Sie stressed. He was getting tired of people constantly trying to impose the title on him.

“Aren’t you?” Hadid asked contemplatively and Sie had to suppress a shiver of discomfort. Sometimes Hadid was a mirror reflection of Zanbaq, just with amber eyes, taller frame, short black hair and black clothes. Hadid’s gaze turned hard, almost dissecting. “Aren’t you, Sie?”

“I do not wish to discuss it with you.”

“If you aren’t then at least let my brother pick a suitable candidate already,” Hadid sighed. “Blood of my veins, you know I love you dearly with the same love I have for Azraq, and I would never choose between you but Karlann needs a queen, ever more now that we are on the verge of war--”

A voice interrupted Hadid right before he finished his ranting.

"That's enough, you stupid child!" It was Zanbaq who barked in displeasure. "Didn’t I tell you to come to me once you arrived?" he added impatiently.  
  
"Zanbaq," Hadid started warily. "I just wanted to see Sie before going to you. You don’t need to get angry."  
  
Zanbaq snarled and spat vulgarities through gritted teeth at Hadid’s answer while the later tried to calm him down. For a moment they looked as the whole world didn’t exist around them, even going as far as forgetting Sie’s presence in the hall.  Sie couldn't help but stare at them unguardedly and  notice the striking visual differences between the prince and his tutor — one in white and the other in black, Zanbaq covered in a big amount of golden jewelry and Hadid almost bare of it, only a black earing hanging from his left earlobe.

“That’s enough,” Hadid demanded when Zanbaq’s predictable wrath turned towards his person. “You won’t speak to Sie like that, Zanbaq.”

“You!” Zanbaq seethed, pointing an accusing finger towards the young prince. “All of you act as if this miserable piece of shit is worth something! Why?! Have you fucked him as well? Is that it?”

“He is the Malika,” Hadid said, a steely tone on his voice. “And you will respect that, Zanbaq.”

“He is not,” Zanbaq all but growled in Hadid’s face. “He has refused again. He wants to leave, to hide tail and run straight to Warf! Don’t you see?! He doesn’t feel any kinship with Karlann, he is just a slave, a low slave that should have been put on his place a long time ago.”

“Even if it was true,” Hadid said petulantly, “it doesn’t change the fact that he is _blood of my veins_ and I have always loved him Zanbaq. Perhaps not with the love you accuse me of but with brotherly affection and for that you will respect him in front of me.”

“Fine,” Zanbaq snapped. “Do whatever the hell pleases you, stupid child. I don’t care. And don’t come looking for me later because I will fucking punch you if you as so much as put a foot in my rooms.”

Hadid just sighed as Zanbaq turned on his heel and walked away. He looked furious and this time he didn’t bother to hide it with his usual taunting cruelty. Zanbaq’s shackles had raised and Sie knew it would take more than just an apology on Hadid’s part to appease him again.

“He hates me,” Sie commented quietly. “He has hated me since the first day I came here.”

“Blood of my veins, don’t worry about that.”

“But he does,” Sie contemplated dispassionately. “And I think it will only grow worse from now on. He wants to destroy me, Hadid.”

“You don’t need to fear anything like that Sie, my brother would never allow it,”

“I...” Sie wasn’t so sure of that anymore. Azraq was different now than what Hadid remembered. “It doesn’t matter.”

“We should walk for a bit and forget all this,” Haddid offered bluntly. “Or we could get drunk too. Anything’s fine as long you keep me company, Sie.”

“I wanted to see your brother,” Sie trailed off uncertain. “But it can wait, I guess,”

“No,” Hadid shrugged. “I have to see him as well. You can keep me company until we find him.”

“Hadid,” Sie said as they started walking quietly trough the palace empty halls. It was mid-morning and everyone was getting ready for another day of having to serve the council. “How well do you think you know your brother?”

Hadid looked at him, curiosity and indecision marring his features. “Why would you ask me something like that? Don’t tell me all the ludicrous rumors I have been hearing since I was in Airtafae are true?”

“That depends on what kind of rumors you have been hearing.” Sie had a notion of what kind of gossip it was but a little vicious part of him wanted to hear it anyway. “What have you heard?”

Hadid’s amber eyes narrowed in contemplation. “Everything from infidelity to impotence; I even heard one of you having an affair with me.” He grinned and then added, amused, “Which I didn’t even know we were having by the way.”

“Zanbaq won’t take lightly to this kind of rumors,” Sie answered, feeling tired. To Hadid it could be funny but to him, it only meant more problems. He only hoped Azraq wouldn’t believe such things. Of course in other circumstances Sie wouldn’t worry about it but with the king behaving so erratically around him these days it was hard not to fret.

“Please,” Hadid snorted. “As if I would do something like that with you,”

“Should I feel offended?” Sie teased good-naturedly.

“Sie,” Hadid stopped and looked directly at him. He looked green and a bit uncertain. “You are kind of like, you know,” the young prince shrugged, averting his gaze.

Sie stopped as well and waited patiently for the other to keep talking.

“I never knew my mother,” Hadid elaborated after a while. He seemed to be struggling with his words. “I was a little child when you came here… and even though I already had  Zanbaq with me back then, well he has never been very  motherly.” He paused for a moment. “To me you are a little bit like…”

“Your mother?”Sie supplied helpfully, reading between the lines. He didn’t feel offended by it. Nor did he feel thrilled; it was just something that he had never considered before. That he as man could be compared to a mother was an interesting theory.

Hadid grimaced at that. “I hope you don’t feel affronted.”

Sie smiled playfully. “Why would I? You turned out to be a very handsome son. I have heard you have many women after you, all my maids are swooning over you and you do resemble me, although you have your father’s cold stare mastered to a degree.”

Hadid frowned, confused. “But you didn’t know my father.”

“What?”Sie smile grew a little bit wider. “Of course I know him, he is somewhere around the palace scaring council members and rumpling all the clothing I pick for him.”

“Azraq?” Hadid asked, unimpressed.

Sie shook his head, finally laughing freely. “Your face is priceless.”

“I am happy you find these rumors so amusing.” Hadid rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I do need to see my, uh _, father.”_

\---

It took them a while before finally finding the king. When they did, Azraq didn’t seem to pay them any attention as they entered his reading rooms — he seemed to be holding a letter on his hands, with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Brother?” Hadid asked uneasily. “Is everything alright?”

Azraq left the letter on his desk, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes,” he admitted dismissively. “I just have a headache.”

Sie pressed his lips, feeling upset. “You don’t eat. You don’t sleep. You don’t rest; of course you would feel sick.”

Azraq lifted his gaze, opening his eyes. “I didn’t hear you enter.”

Sie averted his gaze. “Hadid called you and you said you were free to see him,”

Of course Sie understood it didn’t mean the king would extend the same invitation to him but now that he had heard his majesty was having one of his terrible migraines, he wasn’t to go about leaving any time soon.

Hadid frowned as he looked at them but didn’t comment.

“It is alright,” Azraq said as dully. “I needed to talk to you anyway.”

“Your majesty?”

“Ilha has sent his annual invitation to the hunting carnival in honor of their queen’s birthday,”Azraq answered extending the invitation towards him.

Sie took it and read it carefully. “Do you want me to prepare your travel bags, your majesty?” It was something he did every year so he didn’t think much of it. Every king of the four kingdoms adjacent to the Ilha always attended the carnival as an offering of good will.

Azraq seemed to still for a moment before he spoke. “I don’t.”

Sie watched him, dread curling low in his gut. He had done this every year without fail; it didn’t matter if they were fighting or if the king forgot to tell him about the trip. Only Sie was granted permission to pack the king’s weapons for hunting and his other more personal belongings. “Why?”

Azraq shrugged and for a moment he seemed almost tentative about his answer. “I wanted you to come with me this year.”

Sie started at that. “Your majesty?” he asked, feeling his heartbeat pick up with excitement, but not dared to hope, maybe he had misunderstood. He hadn’t left Karlann in ten years and he had never been to Ilha before.

“Warf is not attending this year,” Azraq answered tonelessly as a way of explanation. “And I thought you would like to go.”

That Warf wasn’t going to attend this year left many things unclear to him while it made others like the permission to leave the country very obvious. He would worry about the implications of Warf not wanting to attend a world-wide peace gesture later. “I would be very honored, your majesty.”

Azraq nodded quietly. “After the council is done next week we will leave for Ilha. Start getting ready for the trip.”

“Yes,” Sie answered almost breathlessly.

“Hadid,” Azraq said after that. “How have you been? Zanbaq came to me earlier to complain about you.”

Hadid clenched his fists. “Brother, you know Zanbaq.” The young prince fidgeted under the king’s hard stare. “He will always seek to win your favor and whatever he told you I can explain.”

“You are young, Hadid,” Azraq lectured mildly. “Don’t take things for granted. Zanbaq has been freed of your care since you turned fourteen and yet he has stayed with you, still taking you with him when he leaves for his travels, worrying about your safety and education. The truth is he doesn’t owe you anything and can walk away from your life the moment he wishes.”

Hadid bit the inside of his lips and listened bravely to the lecture without interrupting.

“Azraq,” Sie called softly. “It’s enough, he did it for my sake.”

“I know,” the king said, making Sie uncomfortable under his unwavering attention. “I know he would only defy Zanbaq when is about you.” Azraq added without heat. “And he is not mistaken, it’s only that Hadid I would worry about you if Zanbaq were to leave you on your own.”

The young prince nodded. “I will apologize properly, your majesty.”

“You don’t need to be formal with me,” Azraq said, sighing. His complexion looked pale, almost ill. Sie had heard the council was unrelenting with the king’s demands this time around — whatever the issue, it still hadn’t been decided but it was obviously straining the king’s patience a lot. “Little Hadid,  just don’t go distressing me too much.”

Hadid averted his yes, shame clawing at his face. “I am sorry brother.”

Azraq shook his head. “If that’s all, you are free to go.”

“I will speak of other pressing things with you later, then,” Hadid offered as he left the rooms.

“You are too hard on him,” Sie said disapprovingly, coming closer towards the king.

“Maybe that is because you make him weak,” Azraq answered,  unperturbed by Sie suddenly breaching his personal space. Sie was pleased by this; the king didn’t flinch at his intrusion. “He will rule Karlann after me. He needs to be hard or the council will rip him to pieces,”

“We both know he will be already too old when you die,” Sie said matter of factly. “His children will be your successors. If you don’t marry first, of course.”

“Marriage,” Azraq spat, obviously displeased with the topic. “I won’t live long enough to see my children grow. Hadid will be my only successor, Sie. I have always told you that.”

“Your majesty,” Sie whispered, feeling pained. He reached out to hold the king’s face with his hands in a caress. “I have always told you, you will have a long life with a wife and successors, a happy life.”

Azraq closed his eyes and let Sie bring their foreheads together.

“You are running a fever,” the light-haired man commented agitatedly.

“You and I have different notions of happiness,” Azraq murmured mutedly.

“I just ...” Sie frowned, thinking already what to do to make the stubborn king rest.

“Sie,” Azraq said seriously. “Whatever happens, I will always remember that cold day in winter.”

“Your majesty?”

The king didn’t answer back, finally putting distance between them. “I will have a council meeting soon, I need to go.”

\---

“Malika?” one of the maids called. Sie opened his mouth, getting ready to retort yet again that he was not the Malika, when Zanbaq interrupted him.

“I was looking for you,” the man hissed, hostile.

Sie just crossed his arms in front of his chest; it was never easy with Zanbaq. “What do you want me for?”

“The fucking Warlord wants to see you,” Zanbaq said impatiently. Although remarkably antagonistic, the man seemed a little bit more at ease than earlier. Sie suspected Hadid had apologized, maybe with new jewelry as a peace offering. “I don’t have time for this shit or you so make it quick.”

“Why?” Sie asked distrustfully.

“I would like to know that too,” Zambaq answered back, rolling his eyes and turning towards his destination. “But I don’t.”

Sie followed the other man quickly, a little step behind. They didn’t talk about anything but it just was… they really had nothing in common. Zanbaq had always been some a kind of mystery to him; after ten years living with his majesty it was hard to not notice the loud-mouthed man always following behind the king like a shadow. Sie had come to understand at the very least that Zanbaq was a childhood friend of the king, a skilled fighter and someone who would never approve of Sie and his relationship with Azraq. It was also painfully obvious to an extent that Zanbaq’s feelings for the king ran deeper than just duty.

Sie looked away from Zanbaq’s figure, feeling uncomfortable with his own thoughts and wondered what the issue Azraq wanted to discuss with him was.

Earlier that morning Sie hadn’t known what to make of the king’s cryptic words, of his intentional mention of their very first meeting: a cold day in winter with the sun hiding out high in the sky.

It had been snowing that day. It had been snowing so much Warf had declared an emergency  when Sie had come back from work (if what he did in Warf could be called work), on the path towards his house, just outside of his door… there, there had been a man, sitting on the ice-covered street, resting his back in against one of the bare, lifeless trees that so often decorated the paths in Warf. He had been there under the raging blizzard of snow.

Sie had ran worriedly towards the lone figure, fearing it was a poor man who had already died of hypothermia, an idiot who had ventured out on in the terrible weather out of necessity but couldn’t make it or, simpler than that, maybe a drunkard.

The man had turned out to be alive (and he hadn't fit Sie’s previous assumptions) and all that Sie could think when the estrange man had lifted his face was… _blue._ The man had had blue eyes, dark like the depths of the ocean or a darkening sky. Those eyes had also been hard, unrelenting and unwavering. The man had been set on something but he also was… Sie knew that kind of gaze, he had watched it in men who came back from war to nothing, men who had lost wives and children. Men without a home. _Emptiness._

The man had been black haired and tanned, a sight foreign in Warf.

Sie had been reduced rendered speechless with wonder.

Still, after a while he had snapped out of it and had placed his umbrella over the man’s already snow-damp hair and soaked clothes.

“I do wonder from time to time what goes in that head of yours,” Zanbaq told him mildly. “Or what do you exactly do to make all the men that come within your sphere want to fuck you so badly.”

Sie snapped out of his memories at Zanbaq’s voice. “I do nothing,” he answered coldly. “But it’s not as if you would believe me anyway.”

“If I did, then I would have a reason to sympathize with you,” Zanbaq countered quietly, more subdued than Sie had ever seen him. “And I can’t allow that, not when you stole something really precious to me.”

“I haven’t stolen anything,” Sie answered affronted.

“Haven’t you, Salha?”

“Is that why you hate me so much?” he wondered aloud. “Because you think I stole something from you?”

Green unwavering eyes stared at him. “You did stole it.”

“What?”

Zanbaq narrowed his eyes and stopped abruptly. “I don’t have time for you or your shit so go to the idiot calling you and stop pissing me off, his new rooms are the last ones of this wing.”

“I don’t understand you.”

“You don’t need to,” Zanbaq said acidly. “But I will tell you this much: that thing that you stole from me, I looked for it many, many years, I thought it was nonexistent or badly broken. Incredibly enough, it turned out alright. However it won’t do you any good because you don’t know how to take care of it and for that reason you will break it, you will lose it.”

The green eyed man paused and lifted his hands, bringing it at his face level, staring distractedly as his fingers. “And I will be there to pick up the pieces.”

\---

“Your majesty?” Sie asked, concerned, trying to put Zanbaq’s weird foreshadowing behind him as he stepped warily through the new royal rooms. Whatever that weird talk had been about, he would not think about it for now. “Did you send for me?”

Azraq looked at him but his gaze betrayed nothing as he was fixing a clean sleeping robe.

“You will sleep in my rooms tonight,” the king said tersely before disrobing. “I will take a bath, you can make yourself comfortable.”

“Your majesty, I don’t understand,” Sie said, frowning. “I thought you…” _didn’t want me here anymore_.

The king shook his head. “Some council members have expressed their pressing desire to be granted a night with you, I refused but it will lack meaning if we don’t sleep together.”

“I understand,” Sie answered back, feeling a pang of disappointment. If anything, he should feel grateful, he guessed, not to run with the same luck as Zamarrid, now that his majesty was putting distance between them.

“You can just go ahead and sleep,” Azraq advised, turning towards his inner bathing rooms.

Sie nodded and walked towards the bed. He wondered if it would be alright to sleep nude, as it was just that hot tonight --if this had been other circumstances he would have just disrobed and be done with it but he didn’t want to push his majesty further away, now that they were going to share a bed once more, so he refrained.

In the end Sie sighed and slipped inside the mattress with his sleeping clothes. He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to call on him but it didn’t happen.

Azraq returned after some minutes, freshly showered and with his hair dripping wet, the black tresses curling a little at the ends. Sie pressed back words of displeasure at seeing Azraq just put some linen pants on and then continuing straightly to rest on the bed, without drying his skin or his hair and getting all the bed damp in the process. They used to fight about it before all the time, until Sie had suggested he would dry the king himself after every bath.

He didn’t know if he would be allowed tonight, tough. “Your majesty?”

“Yes?”

“I can towel your hair dry for you, if you wish so,” Sie offered,  feeling nostalgic all of the sudden, maybe because he had been remembering their very first meeting some hours ago. Although at the beginning it had bothered him, this little act of dedication towards the other man had become, with time,  something he liked doing

“I...” Azraq seemed to contemplate it for a while. “I am sorry, I forgot your dislike for a wet mattress. Yes, you can do it.”

It wasn’t difficult after that for Sie to get up, pick some towels and start drying the messy black hair. He had never said as much but he had always had a kind of fascination with Azraq’s hair, the color of it. Here in Karlann black hair was quite common but it was non-existent in Warf. He liked touching it and combing it with his fingers when Azraq let him get away with it, which, until some weeks ago, had been almost always.

He dried Azraq’s upper body afterwards and then went to put the towels away. The king remained silent through the whole  process but then again, his majesty had never been a talker.

“Isn’t it too hot to sleep covered in so many layers?” Azraq asked half-heartedly. Sie looked at him, ready to climb back on the bed again. With his hair mussed, some bangs covering his eyes and only pants for clothing, Azraq looked remarkably young. It brought back memories of their first’s years together.

“I thought it would be an incommodity for you.”

Azraq looked at him for a while and then snorted, an unusual, bemused expression on his face. “Is not as if I haven’t seen everything there is to see of you before.”

The king looked relaxed and Sie hoped for the mood to continue; he was sure Azraq wouldn’t touch him tonight, at least not sexually, but he hoped they could sleep tangled with each other as they had almost every night before. Before the king started acting colder than usual, shying away from Sie’s affections and touches.

Sie took off his clothes and fell on the bed again, just bringing a sheet close to cover his lower half out of modesty. He felt Azraq move behind him, getting comfortable on the mattress and then turning off the oil lamp over a little table close to his side of the bed. The room went dark after that and the king kept his distance.

“Your majesty?” Sie called quietly after a while; it was possible the king was already asleep and if that was the case, then, maybe it was for the best. “Would you hold me?” he whispered, feeling unexpectedly sad.

Azraq didn’t answer and Sie wondered if there would come a time when the king’s patience, or consideration towards him (he wasn’t sure anymore, what it was) would run out and then being sad would be the least of his troubles.

He wondered if Zamarrid had been right all along and soon he would be tossed to the herd of lustful men that made up the council, to be used and thrown away as nothing living but a mere doll. Sie shuddered disgusted at the thought of it; he knew enough members of the council who had promised him quite the high amount of pain and rape back in the day.

Sleep was slow that night but when it finally claimed him, between the haze of barely aware and unconsciousness, he felt a warm pair of arms circle his waist. He wondered if Azraq had heard his request after all or if he was dreaming. He fell asleep without being able to tell.

The next morning he woke up alone.

\---

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is love!


	6. The king's favorite IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BETAED BY MOON.

As it turned out, the assembly meetings delayed for more than expected. Sie stayed with the king for the remaining days, and was appalled to see Azraq’s deteriorating health. All thanks to the thoughtless men that made up the council.

“If you would just let me feed you,” Sie chastised softly at the king currently resting on the bed.

Azraq remained quiet as Sie worked and put a new wet towel over the king’s brow. His temperature had risen, and after a whole day of arguing with the council, his majesty developed a migraine . Whatever the issue, some of Sie's more faithful maids had told him his majesty’s request had been denied.

“I can’t wait to see them gone,” Azraq rasped with difficulty. “Ilha will be a good distraction,”

“Yes,” Sie admitted quietly. “Only that traveling with your current health makes me uneasy,”

“My current health is good enough,” the king said dismissively.

“It is not,” Sie answered exasperated. “And you will be leading a caravan with those awful man following towards Ilha. And yes, I can see how that will help your current state.”

“I have lived in far worse, conditions than this,” Azraq muttered distractedly. “This is nothing.”

“I have never seen you--”

“I had life before you,” Sie stilled at that, for some reason those words had felt like a slap across the face.

“So did I,” Sie answered stiffly, getting up to wet the cloth again –or maybe the truth was he just needed a distraction, to get busy with something.

“Oh yes,” Azraq muttered darkly. “Warf, your beloved barren land with bitter cold and deceitful royalty; as if you would ever let me forget.”

“You are not better than--”

“What? Your beloved king?” Azraq spat sitting on the bed. “I am not him, I will never be him and maybe you should do good to remember that,”

“Bloodthirsty barbarian, the blue bastard son of the Karlann kingdom. A murderer and a merciless Warlord, am I not?” Azraq asked tonelessly, getting up from his resting place and getting closer towards the paralyzed courtesan.

“A rapist, a savage. A heartless beast who will burn any place that crosses him to ashes. The villain.”

“Isn’t that what your people think of me?”

“Isn’t that what I am to you?” Azraq asked coldly, pinning him to the wall.

“After all, isn’t your biggest wish to be free of the monster?” the king murmured, getting closer to Sie’s face every time. “The nasty man who took you from your home, who robbed you of your rights and what you were supposed to be; the one who made you nothing more than a bed warmer,”

Sie swallowed at that. ‘No, you are not all the things they said you were.’

He wanted to say this and yet his throat felt dry and he couldn’t say a word.

He didn’t know how they had gone from their precarious truce to this. They had been alright, or at the very least Azraq had stopped being like this for a while and Sie had thought they would continue in the same way.

But it was obviously not the case. “Your majesty, I--”

Sie wasn’t able to finish what he was about to say as in that moment the king choose to crush their lips forcefully together, even making it impossible for him to breathe.

The kiss ended too soon after that.

"Go,” Azraq said distantly turning around and going back towards his bed.

“They won’t bother you any longer; you can sleep in your rooms again. Fix what you will need for the travel; we will leave next week in the middle of the night before the caravan does. Zanbaq will deal with the nobles and Hadid will go as the head of the council in my instead.”

“Your majesty?” Sie stared worriedly, something felt off. “Is everything alright?”

The king remained silent for a while before sighing and getting on the bed again. “I just need to sleep.”

Sie frowned at that, his chest felt heavy and something deep inside told him Azraq was hiding something from him. “Whatever it is,” he started saying softly. “You don’t have to do it alone.”

The king didn’t answer after that.

\---

It had been unexpectedly easy after wrapping up the last issues the council had come to address. Azraq had been restless but patient to some limit with all the other petitions that had arrived just before their trip to Ilha. Sie had never seen him like that, not really.

But then it was also true, Sie tended to not get involved too much in the political arguments of Karlaan --he had despised politics since he had been very young. And although he had once occupied a seat on the Warf council he had never really done more than what was asked of him. Azraq dealt with the council in a very straightforward manner, things in Karlann were done very differently than what Sie was used to in Warf.

"It is very curious," Hadid yawned at his side. "All these shitheads were whining angrily to my brother just yesterday and now all demand the honor to travel with him towards Ilha"

"I have never liked politics, Hadid," Sie answered, paying attention to the clothes he was packing inside his traveling bags. "Too much deceit,"

Hadid snorted. "Brother is too good for them; I would have had them killed already if they were so much of a burden. Who needs a council when you have a king?"

Sie sighed. "Hadid sometimes you sound so much like Zanbaq that it distresses me"

"I don't," Hadid protested. "I am nothing like him,"

"Ah, as you won’t hear me anyway, at the very least remember Karlann would fall to civil war if we disposed of the council," Sie shook his head. "All the border lands and the lands near the river are our only source of water. You may not know this, but Karlann was such a reckoning force thanks to all the lands annexed to us after your brother took the crown. The seven households of the pillars of Karlann are strong, they were free people once and they even have their own army, if our army and theirs fought, it would turn into a bloodshed, the alliance stands as it is --even if you killed the heads of the households their heirs would claim revenge. The best course of action to make them happy would be to choose one of their daughters as Malika, but I don’t think it is something that will happen soon, and so they put more pressure on his majesty every time,"

Sie shrugged. "As you see little prince, politics is a rotten world, and whatever that poisonous caretaker of you tells you about it, well... I don’t think is the most right,"

"He is not--" Hadid frowned. "Well, not to me anyway."

Sie smiled warily. "Of course, he raised you and I may not know much about him but I know that he loves you"

"He loves me" Hadid murmured self-mocking. "Just as a starving man loves food, isn’t that right?”

“Hadid,” Sie started to say but the young prince shook his head.

“The truth is as long as I live and as long as he remains with me, he will have my brother’s absolute trust and consideration, a permanent seat on the council and enough weight to keep being the head of the army. I am just very convenient to him, that’s all.”

“I can’t speak for him,” Sie said. “But I don’t think that’s all you are to him, Hadid.”

“I don’t care,”

Sie looked at the prince then, only seventeen years old and already so bitter. He remembered how Hadid had been as a child, awfully quiet almost as if willing to be overlooked under his brother’s shadow. The little prince hadn’t been easy to win back then, no matter how hard Sie had tried –maybe because he had thought of his sisters when looking at Hadid, as they had been around the same age, Hadid had been the first person Sie had willingly reached out towards in his first years living as Azraq’s concubine.

He had tried everything to make Hadid like him, sweets, toys and even going against the king orders to not take him outside of the palace or distract him from lessons that were drilled into him day after day, without a rest.

Back then for some reason Sie had made it his personal goal to make the prince behave a little more like what he was, a kid.

“But I do,” Sie answered simply, reaching out to ruffle Hadid’s head.

“Hey!” Hadid complained. “I am no longer a kid, don’t do that!”

“To me you are,”

Hadid rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you and my brother will leave in the middle of the night, like fucking teenagers and I have to deal with a bunch of stupid old men,” he grumbled.

Sie smiled at him; at least he looked like the usual Hadid again. “The old men and their daughters,”

“It may not be that bad, then,”

Sie just shook his head. “Don’t get anyone pregnant, Hadid, or you would be forced to marry her immediately,”

“Mmm,” the prince said flopping on Sie’s bed, between the traveling bags. “Oh, I think you have a visitor!”

Sie turned around to that and spotted Reigh hiding behind half opened door. The boy looked back at him, wide eyed –obviously scared, for all of the bravado Reigh tried to portray daily the truth was in the end, he was still a child in many ways and Sie remembered Warf’s horror stories about Karlann and its people, worse than that, the tales about Karlann’s king and prince.

“What are you hiding for?” Sie asked patiently. “Come inside.”

Reigh obeyed although somewhat warily of the prince fully clothed in black resting over his tutor’s bed.

“I wanted to speak with you,” Reigh admitted uneasily.

Sie nodded, meaning it was alright for him to continue. Reigh looked briefly to the prince who looked back at him, somewhat amused at the boy’s fear. “I--”

“Yes?”

“I heard you are leaving?” Reigh asked in a quiet voice.

Sie looked disconcertedly at him. “I am but… who told you?”

“Everyone in the palace knows,” Reigh explained as he looked down and bit his lower lip. “Won’t… Won’t you take me with you?”

Sie looked at Hadid who only lifted a brow in response. “I can’t take you with me,” he explained slowly. Azraq wouldn’t allow it, he had been very clear; they were to travel alone, just the two of them, no royal guard behind or maids to tend the king.

Reigh flinched at that.

“But it will be only two weeks,” Sie promised sincerely, reaching out a hand to touch Reigh.

The boy slapped it away, “You are lying!” Reigh accused with shining eyes, on the brink of tears. “You are going to leave me here! All alone!”

“No,” Sie tried patiently. “I am just going to go away for two weeks. I promise.”

“You are lying.” Reigh insisted again, wiping roughly his eyes with his hand. “You are going to leave me here, with all these Karlann fuckers and their nasty ways.”

Hadid frowned at that, ready to retort but Sie shook his head at him. “Haven’t I told you not to speak of people like that? Or do you also think of that way of Miss Eanab, the cheerful old lady that gives you sweets every time you go to the kitchens?”

Reigh hiccupped then, obviously not able to hold back his tears any longer, “No, not her,”

“Then why would you refer to Karlann people that way?”

Reigh shook his head. “Not all of them, but the old geezers who tried to fucking rape me,” the boy said with gritted teeth.

Sie shook him worriedly then. “What are you saying? Reigh?” He looked helplessly towards Haddid who had also sat up at hearing such a thing. This was a serious matter, Azraq tended to let the council indulge in the previous king’s harem –which in a way was willing to please masters with enough power, capable of taking them out of the palace and giving them a home or enough riches to live happily as ladies for the rest of their years. The girls of the harem accepted their work gracefully to some extent; the only one of them Azraq hadn’t been able to save had been Zamarrid who had been promised to the council by the previous king, once he died.

As Karlann law dictated it, Azraq had had to agree to that last wish, they had been done with her after a week –Sie hadn’t seen her but he did know Azraq had made it so that she could go to a place to heal; in fact his majesty himself had taken her there.

Rumors said she had fallen in love with him then and that was the reason she had come back after some months away. Azraq had received her back in court again, of course but she had refused to give up her position as head-concubine even when the king himself had advised her to do it –the harem was the harem after all, and the girls had a job to do.

Zamarrid had accepted nonetheless.

A concubine served for a certain purpose, and there wasn’t much they could do but please, it was their job, and Karlann laws against rape unfortunately didn’t apply to them, however Reigh was a different matter, he was a servant not a concubine and he wasn’t even of legal age.

Karlann’s laws against rape and even the king’s opinion on it were very strong –it was heavily disliked and brutally punished, at the very least in the major cities.

Hazan, however, was the only exception and as much as Sie understood, was a different matter altogether.

“Did they hurt you?” Sie asked again, trying to make Reigh speak.

The boy shook his head. “They tried,” he admitted.

“But they couldn’t?” Hadid offered helpfully, with enough sympathy.

“The green eyed man, the king’s dog,” Reigh winced at his own words. “I mean to say lord Zanbaq, he stopped them before they could do anything,”

Sie blinked at him. “Are you sure Reigh?”

“How would lie about something like this?”

Hadid got as surprised as him but he was able to recompose quickly. “Without a crime, there’s not punishment, however. I am afraid we can do nothing,”

“We can thank Zanbaq,” Sie supplied feeling sour.

“You can come with us,” Hadid offered. “But it would be under my service, you won’t be seeing Sie for the two weeks we are to be away,”

Reigh nodded hurriedly, wiping his tears again. “I thank you, Karlann prince,”

Hadid tilted his face and smirked. “Yeah, not so soon brat,”

\---

“What do you want?” Zanbaq barked irritated; as many others he was also getting ready to travel to Ilha –he would, undoubtedly, ride with Hadid at the head of the caravan.

Sie stared at him, leaning on the doorframe. He didn’t enter, Zanabaq’s rooms seeming as foreign as what the man had done two days ago to save Reigh from an awful event. “I came to present you my thanks,”

Zanbaq looked at him sideways and snorted. “I can do without that, if you want to thank me properly maybe gold would have been more appropriate. Or even the jewels the king has gifted you. I am sure the happiness of the brat is worth one or two of them for you,”

Sie remained silent at that –the unexpected truth was, he had never asked Azraq for gifts, jewels or gold. He had never felt the need or the desire for it but… there was a saying in Warf, ‘if you don’t pay your debts you would be better off dead’, “Is that what you wish?” He asked carefully. “A jewel of mine?”

Zanbaq narrowed his eyes, jungle green glittering maliciously. “No, not any jewel… I want your most precious possession, Azraq’s major gift. Bring it to me and then you may consider your debt settled,”

“Alright,” Sie conceded.

“What?” Zanbaq asked curiously. “You won’t even fight me on it?”

The courtesan shrugged. “That’s your price, is it not?”

“Yes,”

“Then you will have it,”

\---

"How did it go?" the king asked, referring to what Sie had said earlier to him that day, something that had to do with Zanbaq; as he worked on strapping their bags to the horses.

"I am not sure, your majesty," Sie admitted quietly –although he did think what he had given to the other man was enough at least in its worth to pay his debt and ten more. The jewel he had offered, he was sure, was the only one of its kind existing in the five kingdoms. He glanced at the horses, two black animals who submitted easily to Azraq's wishes. "They are beautiful," he added.

"One of them is yours,"

"I thank you," Sie sighed. "But as I have told you many times, I never did learn how to ride one. Nor do I have the heart to kill it if it were to give up on me,"

"You don't have to ride it," Azraq said caressing the head of one of the horses. "You can just have him as you have Wesser, a pet."

"Yes, I could but I would still have to see him dead after a while, isn't that right?"

"Yes, if it was in pain,"

"It's cruelty,"

"No," Azraq answered. "It would be kindness --the horse is yours anyway, but you will ride with me. It will shorten time and he will carry our supplies. It's a long journey to Ilha."

Sie nodded. “Is everything ready, your majesty?”

“As much as it will ever be,” the king answered, climbing up on the horse and extending his hand towards Sie who looked at it resignedly.

“This is not one of my fortes,” he said hopelessly. “As you may remember,”

“I do,” Azraq admitted a barely there smile forming on his lips. Sie stared at it longingly, as it was so rare these days to see the king of Karlann smile. At the very least the king didn’t seem angry anymore and it seemed the truce was on again, he felt relieved at knowing this.

Sie took Azraq’s hand and climbed up in front of him, closing his eyes, bracing himself for what was to come --the travel to Ilha took at least three weeks, it would be tedious and Sie knew it wouldn’t be long until he started feeling the consequences of ridding, the nausea and dizziness were the first to appear and then he would weaken further, thanks to the same symptoms.

“We will stop as many times as you need,” the king offered quietly.

Sie half smiled at that, feeling Azraq’s secure hands on his waist as a form of stilling him. “Thank you your majesty,”

At the very least one good consolation point was that as they had parted in the middle of the night, the weather was cool and he didn’t have to start worrying of overheating thanks to Karlann’s unforgiving sun.

It was some hours until he started feel truly bad.

“We could stop,”

Sie grabbed Azraq’s hands with his own. “No, if we stop every time I get sick we won’t ever reach Ilha,” he did know his own limits though, so he opted to lean completely on Azraq’s chest; it was calming in a sense breathing on the familiar smell of tangerine.

“You are truly bad at this,”

“Yes,” he admitting sluggishly, starting to doze off.

\---

Sie opened his eyes slowly. "How long was I out, your majesty?" he asked.

They were no longer riding, he was resting over sand and Azraq was sitting in front a fire –which Sie supposed the other man had made when he was out of it.

"Since last night," Azraq answered paying half attention to the conversation and half attention to the fire he was tending. "I decided to set camp here, there's a city at some miles ahead but it would have been too strenuous to you to keep going."

Sie nodded, he felt marginally better now that he was not over the horse --they were in open desert, although shielded by some rocks. It was pure open space, the sky already darkened with only a full moon and countless stars as the only source of light. Karlann's desert, some people said was in the middle of nowhere. It inspired awe and fear at the same time.

"We will stop here for tonight, and tomorrow we will go to the nearest city to look for a medicine for you," the king added. "It will be a long trip and you will need it."

"As your majesty wishes,"

"There are still many hours of desert ahead; it would be too stressful--"

"The sky," Sie said making the other man pause in his explanation. He didn’t mean to be rude or make Azraq’s efforts to take care of him seem as nothing, it was just sometimes some things took priority over others in the silliest of ways. "Karlann's sky is so clear; Warf doesn't have a sky like this one, it may sound silly as it is the same sky but this one is beautiful."

Sie truly meant it, as much as his memories allowed Warf had never had such a clear view of the vast canvas above their heads. Back in his home country, it had always been cloudy with unshed snow.

Azraq looked up at Sie's words. "It doesn't matter to me which of the two is the most beautiful, I am content to know it is the same anywhere you go,"

"You have always been a pragmatic type, it doesn't surprise me or maybe you don't ever take time to look up at minor things like this," Sie said turning on his back --feeling the sand rasping against his body.

"I used to think it was a waste of time," Azraq admitted non pulsed.

"What made you change of opinion your majesty?"

Azraq remained quiet at that but he replied after some time. "It is the same sky," he said simply.

"Your majesty?"

"Ilha, Warf, Karlann, Lucendella, Solnce... In all the five kingdoms it is the same sky, no matter where I go or where I stay at," the king said, although maybe in a moment like this he looked less like a king and more like a normal man, with simple traveling clothes and a steady disposition. "All the people I care about, all of them they are under it... They will be watching the same as me."

Sie hummed at the king's admission --sometimes after ten years with the man he was as easy to read as an open book, other times the wall was impossible to breach. Today it was perhaps the former. "A consolation," he said referring to Azraq's words.

"It's an interesting way to call it,"

"Isn't it?" Sie pressed. He suspected very much it was so... And if that was the case, it caused him concern and sadness more than anything. Azraq's words, they spoke of insolation, a heavy loneliness and worse than that they spoke of acceptance of it all.

"Zanbaq would call it stupidity,"

Sie frowned. "He may not if you told him he was between the people you feel connected through it, though the sky I mean."

"He knows to some extent how much I--" It was Azraq who frowned then. "It is late, Sie, go to sleep,"

“How much you what?” He asked feeling anxious, something heavy setting on the pit of his heart.

“Care.”

There was something he wanted to ask him then, something that wasn’t his business but he needed to know, selfishly so. “Have you ever been in love with him?”

Azraq looked down at the sand, his hands playing idly with the pale grains. “I would have liked to,”

The admission… It hurt.

It hurt and he didn’t even know why.

Something deep inside him ached at hearing that admission out loud. A bleeding gaping wound, he inhaled deeply after that and steadied himself for the next question he was about to make, “Then why don’t you?”

Azraq stared at him –cold steely blue that betrayed nothing at all. “Karlann rules permits Royalty to have same sex marriage, but in these cases it also demands a female concubine to continue the bloodline,”

“The woman ends up being the first concubine just a step below the Malika, consolidated positions,” Azraq continued. “And when this happens all the other concubines lose all their political standing and go through what is called an auction. Any member of the council has the equal right to buy the concubine it pleases them the most, the harem gets dissolved.”

Sie stared at him carefully, the knot on his throat tighter every time the king explained a little bit more.

Azraq shrugged. “My father was a widower and so he was able to rebuild the harem, he never married again and so the harem remained; when he died I inherited it but if take a Malika and a second consort it would have to go,”

“If I were to try to love Zanbaq, all of this would happen and you…”

Sie paled at what he suspected Azraq was about to say.

“You more than anyone, you would lose all of your rights, you would go to auction as any other concubine and you would have to leave the palace and do what your new master tells you to do –sometimes the nobles buy the concubines for their own enjoyment but sometimes they buy them to sell them to whore-houses on Hazan, to gain a higher profit,”

“With your looks,” Azraq said. “Your demand with customers would be high as it would be your profit.”

“Knowing all this you would still want me to try and fall in love with him?”

Sie closed his eyes and clenched his fists. That life, he had no doubt, it would be hell. “If he made you happy.” Sie answered softly.

Azraq paused. “He does not, not in that way at least. And I don’t even know if I would be able to…”

“The sex?”

“He would expect it of me,”

Sie knew this, Azraq favored mostly women but he had been an exception, as for him he had only been in love once and it had been a man so he suspected he wasn’t cut to be with women, maybe, he had never been attracted to them before.

“I don’t know what else to say,”

“There’s no need, it won’t happen,” Azraq admitted. “It would tear Hadid apart if Zanbaq were to marry me.”

Sie stared wide eyed at the king after that. “Your majesty?”

“The way he looks at him, it’s obvious enough. I thought you had already noticed.”

Sie hadn’t.

At the very least, his anxious feelings had settled down a bit. He would have to talk to Hadid about this.

“I am cold,” he murmured after silence had enveloped them. They were well deep into the night, maybe after midnight. Azraq was probably already asleep. He was proved wrong however when he felt the king settle beside him, throwing an arm over his lower stomach. “Your maje—Azraq?” He asked quietly.

“Don’t you ever get tired of speaking so much?” Azraq asked muffling his voice on Sie’s neck. “Go to sleep.”

“I can’t,”

Azraq was holding him, willingly, again. He felt flushed with excitement –so he turned around and faced the king. “I know you are awake,”

Azraq didn’t answer.

“Your majesty,” Sie insisted, looking down towards the king’s lips.

He received no answer, but it didn’t matter. He was moving before he could even understand what it was that he was doing; the kiss was soft, just a touch, a brief contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this chapter ages ago (or the 11/29 that was my birthday), but I was waiting for the betaed chapter… in the end well, I guess I just didn’t want to pass another month without posting. In fact I wanted to finish book I of the story before starting 2017, I don’t know if I will be able though –at the very least I would like to post two chapters per month.
> 
> Also I have a tumblr, you can contact me there:  
> http://i-am-really-sorry.tumblr.com/


	7. Interlude II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by Moon.

 

  
It's interesting in a sense, all of this. The uproar and restlessness, the apparent joy. Hart doesn't believe in any of it, but it doesn't mean it won’t amuse him, endlessly.   
  
He watches them through one of the windows of his rooms; the happy couple about to depart. They will be visiting some people before the wedding, and Hart knows this is final. The “happily ever after” that ends every book Primel has and loves. He knows his sister believes in them, but then again, Primel has never been much more than a soft spoken doll with stupid romantic notions and big hopes. This “happily ever after” is supposed to be everything his older brother had hoped for. It would be if everything wasn't a farce.   
  
Hart feels the person behind him beginning to stir, shifting on the bed. She was fine as long as Hart was concerned, not anything memorable but he did like fucking her. A little maiden, a blushing and stuttering girl. Just another servant of the castle that has been through him. Hart prefers them like that, all innocent and wide eyed (they bring up memories of someone else), not as presumptuous as the noble's daughters.   
  
"Leave," he says to the girl. He knows she is alert enough to understand what he is telling her to do. She whimpers but does as she is told. Now that he thinks of it she was probably a virgin. Maybe she hoped for something more, to get something out of him--and if that was the case she was a fool. He doesn't feel sympathy for her or for anyone in the five kingdoms.

  
The only one he could feel something for is far away, and Hart is not one to pine. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t. There’s something wrong with him,  _ broken _ , he had heard his doctors say in hushed noises, fearing the fury of his mother, the now deceased queen.   
  
He hopes she is happy wherever she is. She believed there was something more after death. She also believed in compassion and good deeds. Hart is not his mother and he is thankful for that. She was weak.   
  
A movement below takes his attention. His brother looks pale, almost sick, but he smiles nonetheless –exchanging pleasantries with the nobles, the court and the Solnce people. Kalte is getting married, but he looks like he is heading to his own execution.   
  
Hart knows the reason behind his brother’s distress. He was too young back then, but he has heard enough rumors around. He knows Vesna is not the Orchide, but he doesn’t know more than that. In Warf, tradition needs to be honored, and Hart understands his brother truly believes this. A king without his Orchide leads to nothing but misfortune. It means destruction.   
  
If Hart were complete (if he understood what feeling and compassion and love meant) then maybe he would worry for the future of his nation. Instead he simply looks onward. It might be entertaining to watch Warf fall to dust. War will lessen his boredom a little, if anything. Hart has always liked blood. He liked seeing it on a person specially, but he will take what he can. He is not that picky.   
  
Vesna, the poor girl…   
  
Hart tilts his head, he has always believed there’s something strange with her. She is pretty, yes, with long black hair and fair, fair skin. Shining lilac eyes framed by long lashes and long legs. She must be an amazing fuck, but Hart always believed she was hiding something.

  
Down below his window, she smiles to her Solnce party, a small shy curl of her lips. She then turns to her future husband and Kalte just nods at her, wearily, as if it takes everything he has in him to just go along with all this wedding shit.   
  
Hart snorts as they depart. Ilha’s festivities will be interesting this year.


	8. The king's favorite V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not betaed.

It wasn't that Sie didn't thought about it at all --because he did, from time to time at least. The life he could have had in Warf, all the things he lost there; giving Zanbaq the jewel hadn't seem like much when he had done it but now a week after that and already out of the desert and Karlann's borders, it seemed to him as if he had gifted the last part of his past away. It seemed impossible to not see, that the person he had been back in Warf no longer existed.

"Are you feeling ill again?" Azraq questioned looking sideways at him. 

Sie stared back at him surprised. "No, I," he shook his head. "Are we done here?

Azraq nodded taking the bag of medicine he had been negotiating for a while with him (it was intended to be used on Sie to fight back the travel sickness). 

"I may give you an extra discount in the inn if you spend the night with me," the woman who had sold them the medicine chirped happily. It was a nice old store this one of hers, full with medicines and potions and some other trinkets.

Sie stared wide eyed at her --he had had his suspicion at seeing her bargain with his majesty quite ruthlessly some minutes before but now he was sure of it; she didn't know who the person in front of her was. And so she had no way to know she had just proposed to Karlann's king to pay a night at her inn with his body. Being at Ilha's borders already, Azraq could even declare war for the insult.

But instead Azraq just shrugged. "And what about my consort?" He asked blandly pointing at Sie. "What would we do with him?"

Sie swallowed hard at that, he felt a weird mix of emotions at hearing Azraq refer to him as his consort --not all them bad, though. 

This time it was time for the woman to get extremely surprised. "Your consort?" She asked weakly at what Azraq nodded briefly.

"Oh," She looked between the two of them. "Oh, gezz, I am sorry I was so rude, I didn't thought-- I mean, with him standig so far behind you I thought he was just a servant…"

"Don't concern yourself with it,"

"I will get you a discount as a apology anyway," she offered biting her lower lip. "I don't suppose you would be open to a three persons night, would you or… I don't mind just watching too,"

"I don't think my consort would be able to handle so much. He is sick, after all the medicine I just bought you is for him." Azraq said sounding more amused than offended.

She shrugged, waving halfheartedly. "It was worth the try." 

And Sie could see that indeed for her it had been worth it, seeing how she couldn't stop staring at his majesty with poorly hidden interest. She wasn't ugly by any means, voluptuous and tanned, with curly black hair and an extroverted attitude. She knew her assets and wasn't shy about them, Hadid would probably go for it if she had proposed to him but Azraq seemed more interesed in her hotel fees than in her altogether (which was curious enough since, his majesty had enough gold in his person to maybe buy the whole little town).

"I hope you enjoy your stay," the woman shouted as they exited the store.

"Are we in financial problems your majesty?" Sie asked skeptically but open to any possibility anyway.

"No," Azraq said without much fuzz. "Is just something I do. Old habits are hard to break and… I like doing it well enough I guess."

Sie didn't knew that but he didn't dwell too much on it. "I think it's a good skill to have,"

"It is," Azraq agreed as they crossed the path that lead towards the inn. 

They entered the place swiftly. The sky was already starting to darken and after so many nights in open space Sie was happy to be lead inside the room.  
The big bed inside looked invitingly and Sie was fast to climb over it while he waited for his majesty to finish with his inspection of the doors and windows.

"It will hold," his majesty said as an explanation after being done; taking off his boots and coming to rest right beside him. 

"An invasion?" Sie asked jokingly.

"You would know," the king answered mildly. 

Sie tensed in his side of the bed. They usually didn't speak of that and he didn't know what it was that Azraq wanted to accomplish bringing it back now. It may have been perhaps his earlier thoughts about Warf but now he felt distressed and yes, bitter. "A lone man standing between his people and an army,"

"Not just any man." Azraq said seeming lost far away, too far from this reality in fact. Sie knew where he was, it had been so long ago and yet…

"He had come ready to die," Sie wishpered reaching out to touch Azraq's face. The king turned then, and Sie stilled his fingers. 

"Wouldn't that had been for the best?"

"No." Sie said finally after a moment of silence, bringing his majesty closer to him with his hands --to kiss him, like had been doing every night since that time in the open desert when he considered Azraq was already asleep. 

Only this time his majesty was wide awake and to Sie's complete surprise, he kissed back; and not reluctant or elusive, no, he kissed back like nothing in the five kingdoms matterd more than kissing Sie right now --all raw teeth and tounge and soon it wasn't so much a kiss as Azraq fucking into his mouth, turning Sie on his back and boxing him in with his body. 

Sie blinked dazedly at the king who had started on his neck, with rough bitting kisses --and was already undressing him, with sharp movements; someting teared (the fabric too soft to withstand the rough treatment) just as Azraq started to to lift his legs to pull down his pants. 

Sie looked down at Azraq as he went to position himself between Sie's open inner thighs and then pretty much all coherence left him at the feeling of hot velvety heat envelope him whole. 

Sie moaned throwing his head back, arching on the bed at the white hot pleasure. It wasn't very often that Azraq indulged in something like this. It was something just Sie did for his majesty when their time was short but never expected to be reciprocal and it wasn't even about Azraq disliking it or not trying, it was more about him being a king and Karlann's rules and traditions and Azraq's wishes to follow them. 

Sie trembled when Azraq finally stopped the ministrations with his mouth, red lips shining with spit and hazy blue eyes looking directly at him. Sie was already leaking and unbearable hard.

"In here," Azraq said roughly. "In here I am not a king nor are you my slave. What do you want?"

Sie's breath hitched at that and for a brief moment he wondered if he were to ask for Azraq to give up control (on his knees with Sie inside him) if his majesty would allow it but more than that he knew the need that had started within him when they had started kissing had to be voiced. "Fuck me," he said slowly, breathing heavily and liking his lips. "But I want to see you,"

It was a simple request and soon enough Azraq was working him open with one of the oils Sie had brought from the palace to massage the king's back. It was a slow process as Azraq fingered him, brushing softly his prostate with every try.

Sie hided his face between the pillows, trying to quieten his moans but it all proven futile when Azraq finally fucked into him, roughly and hitting his gland with the very first try. Sie cried out, almost sobbing at the hard tempo Azraq started right after that. 

He clawed at his majesty's back feeling drunk on pleasure as Azraq stopped abruptly the hard thrusts and just held on with little push of his hips, that were enough to keep Sie sensitive but not enough to make him reach his orgasm. "Kiss--" he said breathlessly at what Azraq complied reaching for his mouth and changing the angle to hit really, really deep inside. 

Sie opened his mouth on the kiss drooling and feeling the heat amount on his belly to something actually painful until he was finally there, reaching completion and sagging against the mattress with Azraq still very hard inside him. 

He went pliant after that, loose and unfocused as Azraq started his rhythm again, playing with Sie's nipples and licking them with soft strokes; and soon after that Sie was hardening again rocking against Azraq in between kisses and soft mewls.

\---

Sie moaned loudly after a particular hard shove --he was sweaty and sore but he didn't mind, not really.

Azraq grabbed his hips, strong hands holding him up for the next thrust. Sie bit his lip, he felt feverish with want, burning almost with how much he wanted for Azraq to keep fucking into him. 

It didn't last after that and as orgasm hit him with world-shattering sharpness, he couldn't do much but hold on --toes curling and back arching all dizzy with want.

Sie passed out after that and only regained conscience after the sun was hiding again. 

"Your majesty?" His throat felt dry as he tried to shuffle his way out of the bed. 

Azraq was right there looking through the window of the room lost in thought, dressed only with his pants. The last drops of light painting his profile in half shadows; to Sie he didn't look any different than what he always did and yet something about this moment, the whole travel, something felt at the core different.

"I never wanted to be king," Azraq's voice sounded soft, almost tentative.

Sie didn't know what to say to that so he opted for silence. 

"I didn't want much of anything," Azraq shrugged continuing his explanation in a carful monotone."I was taught in a very early age I didn't have the right to want anything so I didn't,"

Sie stared at him then, carefully. This was a weird occurrence on it's own as the king never really offered information about himself, his childhood, parents, motives or wishes --and Sie with time had learned to live with it, the not knowing; sometimes he thought it was for the best too as he had learned this the hard way back in Warf.

"And then I was a king with an army of hundreds and suddenly the only thing I could ever had wanted was right there in front of me. I could take it,"

"But you didn't," Sie said measuredly. It looked like that to him from this perspective. He had a vague notion, something inside told him, deep down he knew what this was about. 

"No." Azraq answered simply. "I didn't. You didn't let me,"

Sie swallowed hard at that; it was enough confirmation of his previous assumption but suddenly after ten years, it felt like too much --he didn't need reasons now. He knew Azraq wasn't what Warf had told him and that was enough. 

It seemed like after so long Azraq finally was willing to share his motives but---

But Sie was naked, cold and feeling very tense about this conversation; something felt wrong about all this but he couldn't see what. Sie didn't want to know the why, not really, not after so many years; instead he settled for a simple. "I am cold," it had worked before so Sie hoped it would this time as well (the fabric he was covering himself with was light after all).

Azraq didn't say anything else at that just climbed over the bed and did what Sie had hoped. He turned in the king's arms, looking for more contact. "We lost a day," Sie said hushedly against Azraq's neck.

"It doesn't matter,"

"It won't cause trouble for you, your majesty?"

"No," Azraq sighed. "Hadid will handle all of it if I am not there."

"Hadid has turned out an excellent man." Sie offered, borrowing closer to the king and the mattress. "He is quickly coming of age,"

"He is but a child." Azraq admitted heavily, hiding his face in Sie's neck --and tracing iddle nothing's on his chest.

Sie shivered at the contact, eyelids fluttering close and breathing deep. "In Warf the coming of age is at fifteen. All the boys are tested then, just them and the ice. Ninety eight days out in the cold, the glacied mountains and the deep valley; not every one of them manages to come home but the ones that do, they are honored with a fest and their first woman, they can choose anyone from town, unmarried and fertile, sometimes they can even choose a man to fuck, anyone as long as not married even if they are not willing."

"And yet your people is the one that call us, savages," Azraq murmured against Sie's ear, his hand trailing lower with intent.

Sie breath hitched, red-amethysts eyes going lidded. "I don't any longer,"

"And did you do it too?" Azraq asked curiously, stopping his fingers and pinching Sie's middle in the process- -startling a laugh out of him.

And suddenly the previous air thick with lust was gone. Sie knows he is ticklish, is just, it had been a while since anyone had used that against him.

"I did," Sie answered truthful. "A lot of children died back in the mountains, cold and hunger don't mix well."

"Did you fuck a woman then?" There's no heat behind the question, his majesty was just asking to know. Sie even noticed a trace of amusement in his tone.

"No," There were things they never spoke about and Sie's life before coming to Karlann had always been one of them. 

"A man?" Azraq did never ask back then, the first night they fucked.

"No," Sie shrugged. "There were special circumstances that didn't allow me to incure in that part of the ritual."

"In Karlann we only make them drink a cup of Albira and that's the extent of it," Azraq followed with, ignoring Sie's previous admissions --giving him an easy route to escape a lot of questions his previous admissions brought and he didn't feel like answering.

"Albira?"

"Bitter alcohol," the king replied. "Although, I don't think Hadid will be all that ignorant about the subject."

"You think he has drank already?"

"If Zanbaq wished for him to do it, he probably did," 

Sie mussed about that; it wasn't an answer that settled him. "A great blessing or a curse, don't you think so? To hold such a sway over a future king."

His majesty shook his head. "If it were anyone else with that power over him I would worry but Zanbaq would never hurt him."

"Not even for you?"

Azraq stilled at that. Silence falling thick over them.

It was enough of an answer.

\---

They left the room the following morning, Sie swallowing his medicine for the travel sickness and climbing over his own horse by Azraq orders.

"We are still not on Ilha's borders; there will take another two days to reach it and after that another two to  
get to the capital."

Sie nodded his understanding and followed the king to a reasonable speed --after all he wanted enough time to see everything around him as it all seemed so different. It ws true they were crossing a sort of rain forest unique to the Ilha region which Sie had read enough about in his books but the heart of the matter was he had never seen any like this before, not in person; not in Karlann with its scorching heat and sandy lands or in Warf with its bitter cold and infertile soil.

Sie had never seen so much greenery together in his life. It was a sight to behold; specially when they went over a patch of only flowers, blue glowing flowers to be more precise.

He stopped at that and dismounted; there were no recordings on this type of flowers in books. Sie had never seen something of the like before. The flowers, they were immeasurably beautiful. He walked closer towards the nearest batch, bendind over and extending his fingers to pluck one of them-- Azraq hand grabbed his wrist before he could do it however. 

Sie looked up at the king in question.

"Rainha azul," Azraq muttered calmly, not letting go of Sie's wrist. "Extremely poisonous when inhaled, your lungs collapse in a week; it causes fevers and delirium when touched. When cooked or boiled it kills in matter of hours,"

Sie opened his mouth to question some more about the flower but stopped midway; Azraq was no longer paying attention to him (even though he still held Sie's wrist captive between his fingers), he seemed lost in thought.

The king spoke again after a while. "In small amounts it causes heart failure and a considerable amount of daily pain. There is no cure for its poison just treatments for the demage done afterwards, made of a especial seed original of Solnce."

"What about the pain?" Sie asked awed at all the information the king had explained so detachedly.

"After the consumption stops the pain does as well."

"I can't touch it then?" Sie asked knowing beforehand what the answer would be.

"Some of the victims poisoned with the little dosages of Raiha azul through years develop inmunity although, they are often the minority; it is not even safe for them to touch, let alone you."

"It is a pity," Sie sighed. "I had never seen something like this before,"

"What about the white orchide of Warf?" Azraq asked tugging him away from the bunch of flowers.

Sie lowered his eyes not knowing what to say to that --there were, after all many answers to that question.

"The flower," Azraq cleared helpfully.

It was no better, really but it was a start. "It only ever grows in winter. One orchide every fifty years."

"I never found much about it." The king said expectant. 

"I thought you were only interested in poisons." Sie admitted climbing over Azraq's horse again (in the front) as his majesty had changed his mind about their traveling arrangements.

"It is a poison," Azraq offered.

"No," Sie knew some thought about it like that. "It's a healing plant. It's just very particular."

\---

Ilha when they reached it, echoed life, a great amount of greenery and colors plus vasts amounts of water. Enough water that they could afford to waste it freely.

"I confess," Sie motioned with his head towards the pair of children playing with cups of water, splashing around and drenching each other. "It distresses me."

"As any son of Karlann should feel about it," Azraq murmured distractedly. 

"Only that I am not."

"I won't tell any soul if you don't either." The king replied dryly.

Sie smiled at the joke. "If I had known Ilha had this effect on you, I would have brought you here earlier."

"Ilha has never done anything to win my contempt. I like it here." Azraq answered simply, stoping his horse and Sie's. 

"Why are we stoping your majesty?"

"We are at the gates," Azraq nodded towards the gigantic iron gates in front of them, guarded by at least five men with Ilha's badges on their chests.

"Is this normal?" Sie asked worriedly. As far as he knew closed gates in any kingdom meant they were not amicable to be receiving any guests --in worse circumstances it meant… the city was getting ready for war.

Azraq shrugged. "The queen of this land is capricious. Don't fret."

"What should we do then?" Sie asked eying the armed men warily.

"We ask for permission to enter." His majesty answered, dismounting the horse and walking towards the gate. 

Sie shook his head but dismounted his horse too and followed the king carefully. It wasn't long untill he was finally close enough to hear what Azraq was saying to the men at the door --whom didn't seem too certain at his majesty's words.

"The people of Karlann already arrived," One of the guards said. "I don't know why you are arriving so late… I don't even know if you are indeed from the Karlann kingdom. I can't let you inside."

Sie frowned affronted at the man rudeness.

"You are just doing your job," Azraq said. "And you are good at it but why are the gates closed in the first place?"

The guard opened his mouth to answer but suddenly a female voice interrupted him to it. "Because the fucking queen of this madhouse has finally gone crazy."

Azraq tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Go tell her an old friend has come to say hello."

"Nah," the woman said getting plastered to the bars of the gates. "I don't think she has any."

Sie stared at her; she was short, lean and tanned with luscious long black hair and extravagant clothes. She seemed to exhale strength --and just as he studied her closely behind Azraq her gaze turned to him.

"And who are you?" She asked intrigued.

"Just a subject." Sie said firmly.

The woman snorted. "Yeah with those expensive clothes on you, I am sure you are just that, a subject." She licked her lips and grinned sharply. "Is it maybe that you are a noble and this one here is your slave?"

"My lady," Sie started. "I am sorry to disappoint you but I am nothing more than a humble Karlann servant."

"Well educated, are you?" She shook her head, clicked her tongue. "You do know how to pick them, eh, Warlord?"

Sie's eyes opened up in surprise. Azraq wasn't called like that very often. 

"Open up the gates," The woman said to what the guards complied.

"Madeira," Azraq nodded at her. "Is good to see you in such good health."

"I am expecting a child actually," the woman, Madeira, offered.

"I never thought, I would see the day." His majesty answered back.

"Neither did I," Madeira laughed freely. "And yet here we are. And you?" She asked to Sie who had been following silently behind them. "Do you know who am I?"

"No, my lady."

"Mmm, I like him Warlord. I don't know why Zanbaq detests him so,"

Sie lowered his eyes not knowing what to say to that or if he was expected to answer anything at all.

Azraq sighed. "Madeira of Laranja, queen regent of the Ilha kingdom. Really good at hand to hand combat, she took the kingdom out of her alcoholic step mother when she was way too young to even know what to do with it. The previous queen was executed and so Madeira was consolidated as the only heir to the throne. Madeira the soulless queen who killer her own mother is what some people call her."

"She wasn't my mother," Madeira snapped back. "She was a cruel woman who made my real mother commit suicide when I was but a child, she drugged my father and made me her slave. She sold me to Karlann when I turned fifteen and-- "

"He doesn't need to know the rest." Azraq cut. "We have known each other for a while and she is a good friend."

"Well," she frowned. "Yes, to make it short I suppose."

Sie stared unguardedly at the both of them then. Pluzzingly enough his majesty seemed at ease with her, relaxed and content to listen to her incessant chatter --it was a rare sight to behold.

\---

"Oh but where are my modals?" Madeira asked to Sie who only looked at her with a mix of dread and entertainment. She was really a fickle person, he had learned.

"I haven't even introduced you to my husband."

"Is late." Azraq answered on his behalf. "Maybe tomorrow," 

"Nah," Madeira said. "Nonsense. Tomorrow you will meet other persons, tonight let me introduce you to my love."

As soon as they entered the palace the queen called for a maid. "Go fetch me my husband," she ordered happily.

"I will show you around while he comes," Madeira smiled at Sie, grabbing his arm. "Warlord already knows the place and my love but if you wish to come with us…" She trailed off, shrugging.

"Is Zanbaq already here?" The king asked impatiently.

Madeira's face turned sly. "What? Can't live with him but can't live without him, is it?"

Sie tensed at her words --and she noticed of course; Madeira turned at him, a considering expression on her face. "He is here." She added. "With your little brother to whom I had never met before. He is a good kid but I fear for his heart, Warlord... I hope you know what is best for him."

"I do," Azraq answered measured. "Hadid has won my trust fairly. There's nothing you need to worry about."

"Too young, too impulsive, too in love," Madeira started. "Filled with hope --Is never good for anyone… hope is a dangerous thing, it makes men turn to madness," 

"Such cryptic words for a future mother," A man interrupted.

Sie looked at him. The man was of average height, pale skinned and clear eyed with dark brown hair --obviously not a native of Ilha. He seemed kind, good natured and really patient.

"My wife talks too much," the man said. "I am sorry if she has offended you."

"Not at all," Madeira waved her hand. "Azraq knows me too well. Whatever I say, he understands is out of good intentions."

His majesty didn't answer anything to that just nodded and followed behind them in quiet company.

"I am Doce by the way." The man said to Sie, all smiles and sheepishness.

Sie smiled helplessly to that.

\---

It wasn't untill the sun had set down that Madeira and her husband finally let them retire for their rooms. Sie had learned they were good people just a little overenthusiastic. The queen more than that seemed to regard his majesty as family; it was heartening to watch. 

As Sie entered their accommodations, he thought of Hadid, Madeira's unsettling words and of the things he knew a man was capable of doing out of love. Still it was hard to reconcile the little kid Hadid had been when Sie had met him with the man Madeira was warning them about.

"I don't want him to get hurt," Sie admitted to his majesty that was (once again) examining the windows.

"He won't," Azraq answered back still standing by the window. "Hadid is stronger than what you think. Don't worry over him."

"I suppose," Sie sighed. "Whatever you are doing must be better than just sitting still fretting."

"It is a nice moon," Azraq spoke looking through the glass. "You should come to see it."

Sie blinked curious but submitted to the king's wishes anyway; taking a place at the other end of the window and looking over the full moon. "It looks almost red," 

"It isn't red, it just looks like it." Azraq explained. "It's the same blue moon tha rises at night over all the other five kingdoms; still some nights Ilha's moon reflects the lasts rays of sunlight and so looks red. It is famous… Ilha's red moon."

"A red moon," Sie put his fingers carefully over the window's glass. "An ill omen."


	9. Under a colorless sky I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not betaed, still looking for a beta.

Kalte stared through the window of the carriage, Ilha was a reality now, as was his upcoming nuptials to Vesna. Warf had announced their intention of not assisting that year to Ilha's carnival, and indeed they were not assisting for that --Warf was soon to be merged with Solnce, that was the only reason Kalte had accepted Solnce's demands of a public edict. 

Kalte wasn't going to remain for the whole duration of the carnival, he was just going to stay the necessary days to present Vesna as his new Orchide. 

Kalte closed his eyes at that. The new Orchide… What kind of king could protect his land, without even managing to protect his own queen. 

Kalted clenched his fists, but with the upcoming war Sie would have peace in the afterlife at least.

Vesna, Solnce, Luccendella, all of it --this sham of a marriage. Karlann had took Warf's precious Orchide and killed it and now Kalte would have his revenge. 

After the marriage, Kalte had decided to declare war --Karlan would be reduced to dust and desolation and Kalte, Kalte would have nothing on it but the satisfaction of knowing, he had destroyed the barbarians that had destroyed him first. 

"Kalte?" Vesna asked. 

There were days, Kalte could barely stand to look at Vesna, days when he detested him with all his heart, days when his urge to hurt him took him by surprise (as it was that strong) and days when he could just pretend, pretend they were anything but what they really were.

Days Kalte could pretend, Vesna was a maiden, a girl with short breasts and long legs --days, Kalte could pretend Vesna was the real Orchide, that she (he) had been born with that duty since they very beginning, and that this marriage wasn't an obligation but a joy. 

Today, however, was one of the former days; Kalte wasn't drunk or numbed with any sedatives and he couldn't pretend. 

Kalte couldn't pretend and he had to see Vesna just as the man (because he was a man, without breasts and with a cock) really was. 

Vesna with his wig of long dark hair; Vesna dressed as woman to please him with a voluminous lace dress, light purple matching to Vesna's eyes.

Kalte felt sick to look at him, nauseous, disgusted- Sie would have never condoned to something as shameful as this. 

But Sie was dead and Vesna was to become his spouse in matter of days. 

"Kalte? Are you alright?" Vesna tried once again.

Kalte didn't answer back, just lifted Vesna's skirts to an indecent height. Vesna's breath hitched, the pale skin of his cheeks turning red. 

Kalte opened up Vesna's legs; even the interior clothes were the ones of a woman. "High heels," Kalte said, interested. 

Vesna nodded; and Kalte remembered briefly how in their starting days, Vesna's feet had bled in his effort to use that kind of shoes. 

"Do you want me to fuck you?" Kalte asked, grabbing Vesna's legs with bruising force. 

Vesna's body trembled, it could be in lust or in fear, Kalte didn't know. 

"Whatever you wish, Kalte." 

"Whatever I wish," Kalte repeated, narrowing his eyes. 

"Yes."

"Then, buy a wig of white hair, and red reflective mirror's to cover your eyes. Act as a future queen, with the modals and mannerisms, talk back to me as an equal, treat me as if you have known me all your life, give me wise advise, act as any childhood friend would to another --and," Kalte swallowed hard. "Love me, love me quietly and unobtrusively. Love me even when I can't love you back. Love me but never say anything about it,"

"Can you do that?" Kalte inquired, brokenhearted. 

"I--"

Kalte shook his head, "You can't."

"Kalte…"

Kalte increased the force on his hands, making Vesna's legs turn red from the abuse. "You can't because you are not the original Orchide, you can't because he is dead and you won't ever measure --but you can let yourselve be fucked,"

Vesna didn't answer back. He was trembling harder than before. 

"After all that's what your brother sold you to me for, isn't it true?" 

In the end, Kalte didn't fuck him, although it could have been so easy. The Warf's king retracted and let Vesna to fix his clothes, still trembling in the corner of the carriage. 

"Don't talk to me," Kalte ordered. 

The rest of the ride was silent. 

\---

Kalte deslikes heat, the humid weather of Ilha's making him sweat. Vesna is currently sleeping on the bed, taking half of the space, Kalte would feel upset about it but he can't sleep -so there's no point in anger. 

Plus, they are already at the main city, just a day away from Ilha's heart and its queen. The inn they are staying is good too. 

There isn't a real reason for him to feeling as he does, anxious and on edge. 

Kalte and insomnia have been friends now, for a long while; since Sie was presumed dead, probably. Kalte knew, it wouldn't be easy for him after that, only he didn't know how much.

It had ben an unusual sunny day in Warf, Hart and Primel had been playing around at his side, while he studied the lessons his tutors had assigned to him -when his father had ordered his two younger siblings out.

Kalte's father had sat in front of him, holding his hand, "You have to be strong,"

His father had shaken his head. It had been twenty days since Sie had disappeared. "We found Sie's clothes, some of them, were drenched in blood," his father, the King at that time paused, "There's been reports he was last seen at the borders in chains, took by Karlann's people. The people who said this, doubted if it was really him as the Orchide never leaves the main city, but now we believe he's dead."

Kalte closed his eyes at that. "That can't be,"

"My son, your future queen has been taken from you, murdered coldly and your whole kingdom will mourn with you," the King grabbed Kalte's hand tightly. "But Warf can't afford a war, not as weak as we are, it would be suicide,"

"I only ask for you to keep searching, father," Kalte had asked roughly. Sie had to be alive, somehow, somewhere and Kalte had hope, hope for Sie to be returned to him. 

That had been ten years ago. The hope of his Orchide and rightful Queen being alive was long gone -but now he was King, he could take revenge, and even if he never slept again, at least it would be worth it to see Karlann crumble to ashes.

\---

Madeira was an interesting woman, Kalte felt cautious about her -and that said a lot about her character. The Queen who had killed her own mother… Kalte wondered how much of that was truth.

"My king," Ilha's queen acknowledged. "I thought Warf had declined our invitation this year," 

"I am here not for your party, Queen Madeira," Kalte shook his head. "Do not take offence,"

"Oh, no don't worry," 

"I am getting married in matter of weeks," Kalte said, looking at Vesna who was speaking in the far corner of Ilha's throne room with Madeira's husband. "Solnce and Warf will merge," 

"I can see that," Madeira answered with eloquence. 

"My visit is mere protocol," 

"Yes," Madeira nodded. "It's Solnce protocol, yes?"

"I fear so,"

"King Kalte," Madeira smiled -it was malicious enough to set Kalte on an edge. "My kingdom welcomes you, Ilha hopes you enjoy your stay."

Madeira shrugged. "I hope you find everything you need,"

"Thank you," Kalte said between gritted teeth. Whatever game this woman was playing, Kalte had no patience to play it with her. "The announcement will be short, a mere formality, it can be done any day you wish."

"Mmm," Madeira looked at him considering. "Any day?"

"Of course, I would appreciate for it to happen soon." Kalte wanted to be free from this as fast as possible. "I need to reach Lucendella after my visit here."

"I will host a night ball in two days," Madeira said, "Is that good enough for you?"

"Yes." 

"Well," Madeira waved her hand dristractedly. "I still have things to do but you are welcome to join me if you wish, or go your own way,"

"Vesna will love to join you if you will have her," Kalte answered politely.

Madeira snorted. "Yes, I'm sure she will."

\---

"You look heartsick," a man said behind him. 

Kalte didn't bother with a reply -whoever it was, would leave at seeing Kalte's rudeness. 

"It takes one to know one," the man continued. "It's a shame to feel like this under such a curious moon."

Ilha's red moon was something Kalte didn't particularly liked or even admired. Warf was in no way, even remotely close to what Ilha was, and to Kalte Warf's moon was a hundred times more appealing.

"It's not that special," Kalte said. The man could go away if Kalte's words offended him.

"You are the second person to say that to me today,"

Kalte finally turned at that. "Karlann accent?"

The man nodded. "I am Hadid."

Kalte didn't pretend to care. Karlann had its time slipping like an hourglass. And this man, he would probably be dead -in the casualties of war- sooner rather than later.

"You don't talk much," the man called Hadid said. "Well, I guess quiet people are meant to be around me."

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Kalte asked feeling exasperation. He had only wanted to take a night walk around Ilha's gardens, to fight the insomnia that chased around him like an old friend.

"Not really," Hadid smiled, an ugly twist of his lips. "The person I am sharing a room with, asked me to leave, said he needed time alone with my brother. They will probably speak for hours, I don't have anywhere to be right now."

"I hope is not your woman," Kalte sighed, knowing he had opened a chance to conversation.

"He is not."

"Well, that's a relief, wouldn't you say?"

Hadid shrugged. "For all I know, they could very well be fucking."

Kalte tilted his head. "And that bothers you?"

Hadid averted his eyes. "Love it's a fools errand, as they say,"

"Ah," Kalte looked at the other man, noticing he looked pale and sick, nauseous even. "Love,"

"I don't pretend to understand a love for another man," Kalte clasped his hands behind his back; this admission was an unfortunate truth. Lust, maybe, even if he felt unclean afterwards -Vesna had been the first man, Kalte had ever fucked and even though, it revolted him more than pleased him… he could figure in a very simplistic way, wanting to fuck another man.

But love?

To Kalte that was a mockery. Even when Sie had been alive and had professed an unconditional love for him, Kalte had never been able to reciprocate.

There had been a girl, the young daughter of one noble; red hair and lips, fair skin and light green eyes -they were fourteen and back then Kalte had thought, he loved her. When she had kisseed him for the first time, he had wanted to marry her. 

Kalte had told Sie this, of course, as he had always told him everything. After all Sie was the Orchide, and Kalte's by law. 

An Orchide of Warf was supposed to be always there for their King, first and foremost. That was the Orchide's mission as much as Kalte gathered by the limited standards of a fourteen year old.

Sie's red-amethyst eyes had gone wide at Kalte's declaration; he had nodded and listened and even cheered for Kalte to keep courting the girl.

And Kalte had done it; too preoccupied with the girl he hadn't noticed at first, that after that Sie had been somber for days, quiet and distant. But when he had finally noted it, Kalte had hated it and asked his father about it, about how to fix it.

And his father had clarified that Kalte's own mother had been an Orchide. That Orchides were special, rare gifts meant only for the one who was King to cherish them. 

"Do you understand?" His father had ruffled his hair. "You can have her, this girl, if you really want but never as a wife. Your Orchide is to be that."

And right then, Kalte had figured: Sie loved him like Kalte loved the girl.

Many days after that, with the girl wrapped around his hips, her breasts bare before Kalte's eyes, and her voice moaning as he pounded into her -Kalte had figured too, that he couldn't love Sie this way, not the way Sie loved him. 

Still it didn't mean, Kalte didn't love him at all. There were many kinds of love and Sie was loved by him, yes, but only as the Orchide.

To this day, Kalte wasn't sure if he would had been able to consummate his marriage with Sie, if Sie had been alive -as Sie would had never dress as a woman and much less use a wig.

Kalte supposed the answer to that was a no. 

Still what he did know, was that -whatever they might have been- Sie's absence hurt. It hurt like a festering wound that had never healed. Kalte had never learned how to love him as he deserved, how to live with him like Warf laws dictated, how to live with him like his parents had lived but…

He had never learned how to live without him either.

"To love another man," Kalte said. "It seems frivolous. "

"It may very well be but… I can't change my feelings." Hadid commented pained.

"No." Kalte agreed, the knowing of years behind his words. "You can't."

\---

"Kalte?" Sie asked softly. 

It was dark and Kalte was half asleep. Sie moved on the bed, the covers rustling with him. They had been sharing a room, a bed, since they were six -Kalte was used to Sie's restlessness now. 

"Yes?" Kalte asked yawning. 

"You will be turning seventeen in two weeks," Sie said. "And…"

"A year to go before we are legally married," Kalte supplied, knowing Sie had been thinking about that.

"We don't have to." Sie offered bravely, "It may be different but we don't have to Kalte, you always wanted a wife, a girl to love and have children with. You know Warf condemns affairs. A mistress would be enough for you to be judged by the elders, enough for them to take away the crown from you."

"Kalte," Sie insisted worried, "Kalte please listen to me, I can be a counselor. I'll always remain by your side, but let's not marry,"

"Do you hate the idea?" Kalte asked, moving around to switch on the gas-light by the nightstand.

Sie's weary eyes stared at him but he said nothing.

"Is this about Erena?" 

Oh yes, Erena, just another woman added to the long list of women he had fucked since he had turned fourteen. She was nothing special, blond and pretty in a doll-like way, but remarkably ordinary.

Sie twisted his lips. "Warf doesn't see marriage as a joke. I fear for you and your safety,"

"I have been fucking her for a week but that means nothing, you know this," Kalte framed Sie's face with his hands. "Every thing pales compared to my Orchide,"

"You won't be able to keep doing this once we marry," Sie stated with a sigh. "A life of celibacy, can you do it?"

Kalte lowered his head, their noses touching. "My brave beautiful Orchide,"

Sie closed his eyes, and Kalte stared at him. Words were everything and at the same time held so little meaning. "You alone are enough to me,"

Lies, lies, lies (pretty little lies) -they were all lies, but lies that made Sie happy. Not the elders and not Sie, no one had the need to know about Kalte and all the lovers he kept. All the women who had promised to stay with him even after marriage, at risk of being disgraced and convicted.

"You and you alone," Kalte wishpered, moving his lips to trace Sie's cheek. "In this world,"

"You and you alone in this world are the beat of my heart. You and you alone would make the sky turn colorless in absence. You and you alone, my love," Sie recited, a small smile on his lips. "I know you hate poetry. How did you manage to learn that?"

Kalte wrinkled his nose. "My father made me. He said you would like it. He likes you more than he likes me."

That was true too, Kalte's father had always loved Sie as another son. And Sie had been fond of the king too, after all, Sie had only had a mother, and his sisters (the twins) as family; Sie's father had died when Sie had been too young to even remember him.

Sie's mother had remarried afterwards, and she had had the twins -but her husband hadn't been ideal and as far as Kalte knew their relationship had ended abruptly.

Sie opened his eyes and there was a soft hue to them. "You and you alone," he repeated.

"Kalte," Sie called at him but was unable to continue as a heavy cough shaked his frame -and then another, and another and another.

Until there was blood, so much blood it was soaking the bed and Sie's clothes. Until all turned red, so red and Kalte started screaming for the healers to come. Sie was dying in his arms, coated in blood and this- this was not how that night had ended, that night they had just curled together and slept after Sie had finished saying 'you and you alone.'

Kalte remembered that night, it had been one of the last ones; but it was futile. Sie looked grotesque, half alive and bathed in blood and sand as he mumbled non stop:

"You alone,"

"You alone,"

"You alone,"

 

"This is your fault, yours alone----

 

Kalte woke up startled, breathing hard and sweating. It was dark (but already morning) and Vesna breathed evenly at his side.  
They were still in Ilha, waiting for the announcement, that was to happen tonight.

Kalte sat on the bed, his breathing erratic, covering his face with both hands.

Today would be one of the bad days.

\---

The ball couldn't come soon enough. It took hours but then it was ready and Kalte felt sick once again.   
Vesna remained with Madeira, the last one cooing over Vesna's purple layered lace dress.

Their announcement was to be done at the end of the ball, so Kalte decided to go once again towards the gardens, to wait there alone -away from the noise and the music.

Kalte walked around the gardens for a while, wondering when all of this would be over.  
He sighed and looked up, "A colorless sky," he said miserably.

As he looked Ilha's red moon go up, he knew it was time to go back, he had been here for a long time already.

Kalte started his walk towards the palace again, but stopped midway at the sound of something heavy falling down. In the dead silence of the gardens the sound had been obstreperous. He turned towards the sound and curiosity made him walk towards it.

When Kalte reached the place the sound had been heard, he spotted a man that was bending down to pick a glass-case -no, a glass case would have shattered at falling down. The box the man held in his hands looked like a glass case but was definitely something stronger-

The box in itself was curious enough, it held a lone blue glowing flower inside. Kalte had to admit, the flower was very particular as it was beautiful. He had never seen something like that before.

Kalte didn't know what moved him to say. "Are you alright?" But he did, and as he waited for the man to answer to his question, Kalte took in his clothes.

The man was dressed in traditional Karlann's clothing (he even had a shawl covering his head and part of his shoulders), of high quality and yet the tone of his skin looked fair, pale creamy -Kalte noticed because it was strange as all the Karlann people were of a deep tan, and olive skin.

"Well, are you?" Kalte asked impatient, to the man that hadn't lifted up his head yet. 

The man just nodded, still with his head down, and turned without a word -glass case pressed protectively to his chest- obvious in his intent to leave.

Kalte felt bothered by this, he had offered the man help after all. 

"Hey," Kalte said as he grabbed the man's wrist before he could leave.

The man tensed and tried to fight the hold. 

Kalte frowned, "Stop," he said already pissed, and grabbed at the other particularly hard.

The man had no choice but to turn towards Kalte or stumble. In the struggle the shawl fell off. The man's hair was white, white as Kalte hadn't seen since…

When the man finally lifted his head, red amethyst eyes stared at Kalte -calmly- back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't really known if I was going to keep writing this story. I thought of dropping it or making it go on hiatus -as I had been having a writing block- but in the end I waited for insp to strike again and it did. I plan at very least finish book one, so yeah, we are also halfway to that.
> 
> To those who have commented, you have to know, it means a lot to me.


	10. Under a colorless sky II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still looking for a beta. Not betaed.
> 
> Warning for this particular chapter: NON-CON.

 

 

"How much time did you think, it took the Salha to find him?" Zanbaq whispered right in Azraq's ear. His voice honeyed and mocking at the same time.

Azraq didn't answer anything at all; he remained still on the balcony, looking down at the scene unfolding before their eyes.

"It was meant to end, anyway," Zanbaq continued. He had been caging the King between his arms (Azraq's back pressed to his chest), with their size deference, it could be called clinging as well. "You knew since the very beginning."

Azraq remained stubbornly silent.

Zanbaq sighed, rested his chin on Azraq's shoulder and stared.

Below them, on the gardens -almost as if out of a romance play, the two lost lovers reunited. Zanbaq snorted at that. It was a dark night, only the pale light of the red moon shining upon them. The Salha had been struggling to break free of the Warf's King hold and in his haste, his shawl had come off.

The blonde had stayed stunned and pale, his eyes had gone wide and he had taken two steps back. The Salha had moved in reverse too, ready to flight -but the King of Warf had noticed his intentions and in the middle of his shock, had managed to grab the Salha's wrist again.

Zanbaq didn't know what they were talking about; it was impossible to hear at this distance but he had an inkling that, that wouldn't matter much in the end.  
Acts being stronger than words and all that shit.

"I wonder how much until they fuck?" Zanbaq asked amusedly, feeling Azraq tense under his arms. "Give it up Habibtaa, you know that's where this will end."

"It hurts," Azraq said quietly after some minutes had passed, it was almost non-perceptibly. And for a moment Zanbaq thought back to their past, about how he could count with the fingers on one hand (and still have fingers to spare) how many times Azraq had amitted the same thing in their childhood -about far worse tortures than this.  
Zanbaq hadn't been able to do anything for him back then, aside from offering little comfort, even though he had wanted to.

Zanbaq wouldn't do anything to soothe this pain though. Not yet. "You need to see it," Zanbaq said almost in a caress to the King's ear. "You need to see it, Azraq."

At the gardens, the King of Warf had the Salha between his arms. The both of them kneeling -the box with the Raiha Azul at their side, forgotten-

It made for a nice analogy, if anything. The crystal box with the flower had been a recent gift of Azraq to the Salha; as things stood, it would also probably become the last one.

"He never belonged to you," Zanbaq secured his hold on Azraq's neck. "As you have never belonged to him, Habibtaa, please."

As the King of Warf framed the Salha's face with both hands, Azraq murmured. "I don't want to see anymore than this,"

"Just let go, already," Azraq said turning around, brusquely -intent on no looking towards the gardens any longer.

"Fine," Zanbaq grumbled, knowing Azraq could over-power him and move him by force anyway. "Fine," he repeated stepping aside and letting go of the King.

Azraq was immediate to leave, afterwards, not looking behind even once. Zanbaq stayed on the balcony, yawning -and that may have been for the best as just then, the Warf's King went for a kiss that the Salha rejected immediately -and non too subtly.

Zanbaq twisted his lips in distaste. That could be a problem.

\---

"I heard he called it off," Zanbaq said, pressing his lips together. "The fucker called the whole shit off,"

Madeira turned towards him. She smiled and motioned with her hand for him to come sit close to her -fruit and bread were spread upon the table as a snack-

Zanbaq thought, viciously pleased, that he would feel better once he stabbed something. The fruit Madeira offered seemed good enough for this.  
He took the seat closer to her and reached for a plate.

"I don't think I have ever seen such despair over a face before," Madeira frowned. "Well over their two faces really."

"The girl wouldn't stop crying," Madeira picked a slice of bread, wrinkling her nose. "It was supposed to be a big day for her and instead, it was awful."

The Queen shook her head. "I feel sorry for her. She is still young, younger than us. She will find another husband, hopefully."

"They are gone," Zanbaq added agitated, not bothering to spare sympathy for the Solnce girl. "Overnight, the whole Warf party packed up shit and vanished."

"I know," Madeira answered easily. "Don't worry for that,"

Zanbaq sighed, pressed a hand to his face, rubbing his cheek distractedly. "The Salha is still here.  
Without Solnce, Warf doesn't have the means to initiate a war,"

"Without wedding there won't be alliance," Madeira conceded. "Is good for Karlann at any rate."

"Is not good for me,"

Madeira looked at him, a hint of worry in her eyes. "Zanbaq?"

"Warlord said, he would do what was necessary to keep the Salha safe before the war started," Zanbaq paused, shrugged. "The Council has been pressuring too much to take an offensive posture, but Azraq refuses,"

Zanbaq looked down, tapping his fingers on the table. "He is tired, Madeira, tired of everything -he won't fight again. A King that refuses to fight in a war and stays in a defensive position. Don't you see the good of it?"

"I don't see how this is any good," Madeira countered, heteadly. "I worry for him."

"When we were little he asked me to wait," Zanbaq looked back at her. Madeira's eyes were clear as she listened to him. Zanbaq wasn't particularly fond of the past but admist the shit he had been through, there was a thing he had always pulled strength from. Azraq. Azraq and all the promises they had ever made. It may have been silly words from a kid to another but Zanbaq never forgot.

And so far Azraq had made most promises true -it was just the last one, that Zanbaq fretted over.

"After when were finally out of that shithole, when we met you and the others, he said it wasn't the right time either," Zanbaq shook his head. "After he was named King, he said, he didn't know how much longer it would take."

"Zanbaq?"

"The war was supposed to make it happen," Zanbaq spat. "To make us finally free."

"But now, it won't happen," Madeira finished for him.

"And the fucking Salha," Zanbaq sighed frustrated.

"You expected Sie to go with his people?"

Zanbaq crushed a piece of watermelon in his plate, before moodily answering. "I hoped for him to fucking scram, or at the very least for the Warf's King to kidnap him and take him away."

Madeira hummed, a too calculating look on her eyes. "Where do you think he is right now?"

"Fucking Warlord, probably," Zanbaq sneered. "Or the stupid kid. Who knows Madeira? Maybe even your husband,"

Madeira slammed her hand on the table at that, all the silverware jingling. "You are lucky I fucking love you, Zanbaq,"

Zanbaq rolled his eyes at her. "Not enough,"

Madeira sniffed. "The necessary amount,"

"None of you fuckers, had ever loved me enough." Zanbaq looked down at his plate. Whatever he said, he did know, to Madeira Azraq and him were family. And the other two (the missing ones), well, Zanbaq knew they cared for him as well.

Zanbaq had to admit his previous admission was, most likely about Warlord. Not that he was going to start bitching to Madeira, about his fucking feelings because, yeah… no.

"Azraq does love you," Madeira offered kindly. "At his own way, but he does."

"Never enough," he answered again and this time Madeira didn't countered him back.

\---

"Zanbaq," the Salha called at his back. Zanbaq stopped; this could turn out to be very interesting.

"What?" He snapped.

"The King," the Salha demanded. "I have not seen him for days. Not since the night we arrived, What is he doing? Where is he staying?"

Zanbaq tilted his head, narrowing his eyes -he had thought Azraq would be very happy at seeing how his little pet hadn't run away with his previous master; he had thought Azraq would have been staying with the Salha all this while, fucking him senseless, and yet, that appeared to not be the case.

"We spent two days going back to the rain forest for the Raiha Azul," Zanbaq shrugged. He had been angry at Azraq for that too -to expose himself so much at being near the flower, just to make the Salha happy had been insulting-

"I want him to have it," Azraq had said as he had reached the flower. "It's fitting."

Zanbaq had scowled. "You try your luck with the medicine and my patience. That shit is bad for your health and you know it."

"It won't matter a little more of it," Azraq had answered matter of fact.

And in the end, they had managed to seal the poisonous flower inside a refined diamond box, Madeira had had done specially for the occasion. Azraq had seen for the flower and for what would keep it alive inside the case.

"I was with him the night the Warf-Solnce engagement was broken off," Zanbaq said (a half-smile on his face) turning to face the Salha.

Sie crossed his arms, defensive, but didn't answer anything to that.

"Would you know anything about this?"

"You know, I haven't been in Warf in a long time," the Salha retorted. "I know nothing of their affairs."

"You wouldn't," Zanbaq said, twisting his lips, darkly amused.

"Zanbaq?"

"I have not seen him, Salha. I don't know what he is doing or where he is. Try Madeira," Zanbaq acknowledged, turning away. He didn't have anything  
else to say to the Salha. He didn't really know where/or what was Azraq doing -and if had known he wouldn't have told the Salha, anyway.

After all, it would be for the best.

\---

It was a nightmare. It had to be, because otherwise Kalte would crumble under the weight of all the implications. And it wouldn't be that estrange, no it wouldn't be, he had seen Sie many times before. Kalte had seen him; the shape of his lips and the curious color of his eyes.

Day and night for ten years. Particularly when he took sedatives. Sie had been there always, silent, judging and so painfully familiar, sometimes Kalte forgot he was not a child anymore.

But deep down, he knew, it hadn't been a dream. No. Impossible.

Kalte's hand trembled when he tried to pick up, some of the sedatives out of his night table. He managed to grab them anyway -swallowing with a cup of wine; he didn't care much for correct amount, just took enough too feel numb.

It would help, it had to help. He felt cold -but he was back in Warf, and Warf had always been cold. The sedatives would keep him warm anyway, the sedatives always worked.

And soon enough they did. Whatever he had seen seemed so blurred now, distorted like smoke. Unimportant. Sie's eyes had been different, cold to an extent; he had seemed so distant, almost like another person altogether -but now Kalte didn't even known why it had distressed him in the first place.

Sie was dead. The Orchide had been dead for ten years.

It was a nightmare obviously. And it was of little importance. Kalte felt loose and easy already.  
He felt good. Too good. Burning, he felt like doing some fucking -a woman would have been ideal, but he had been keeping it down until the wedding with Vesna.

Kalte felt a pang of distaste at the thought. Vesna. Vesna should be here as they had started sharing Kalte's room after it had been negotiated, they were getting married. Vesna, he would work Kalte guessed, even if it made him feel like throwing up. He just needed to find him probably.

And he set out to do exactly that.

Vesna, when he found him, was in the east wing of the palace, in a random room -reading-

Kalte dismissed the maid that had pointed him towards the right direction, and entered the room. Vesna tensed at his presence.

"On the bed, on your hands and knees," Kalte ordered, his voice like sandpaper. "Strip,"

Vesna shivered out in fear, hunching on himself but didn't move. There was hurt in his eyes, a little bit of defiance.

"Don't try my patience," Kalte snarled. "On the bed now."

Vesna stood up, out of his chair -but didn't move an inch towards the bed. It meant, tonight, Vesna wouldn't cooperate at all.

Kalte didn't mind this even if it irritated him. It would be just a little more of work, that was all -so he went closer, to his future spouse, and grabbed his hair (long and lush, black).

The wig fell off at the force, and Vesna was left with his own short strands of hair (still black).

Kalte narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but repeated the same movement -grabbing Vesna's short hair and pulling roughly, until Vesana was finally on the bed, on his stomach.

Kalte climbed up behind him and unbuckled his belt. He took Vesna's clothes and teared them apart -the pink lace of his night gown, giving in easily-

Vesna's back was pale as well as his tighs, he bruised so easily and prettily. Kalte shoved the other's head deeply into the mattress, as he lifted the pale hips. Heat. Soon enough. Soon enough he would be enveloped in heat, and that was all that mattered.

Kalte was hard and he just had to take relief. It was for what Vesna existed, it was for what he was there. To be fucked.

Kalte plunged deep inside in one long thrust. He grabbed Vesna's hips and started a rhythm. In and out. The heat was scorching and, his fucking was made easier when Vesna's walls ripped apart and started to bleed.

Kalte fucked him harder -and for a little while in his high, he thought about getting Vesna off too.

Kalte went and took a hand to Vesna's cock, but it was for nothing as it was limp. He grabbed it roughly, made it hurt as he completed it to hardness, his nails biting on it -staining red as well-

He fucked him until he was exhausted, until he felt aching in his bones and lightness in his head. Vesna orgasmed once, Kalte didn't bother to make it more pleasant than that.

Vesna didn't cry out either, not in pleasure and not in pain, he never did when Kalte took him like this.

It was a long while until Kalte came and after he did, he rolled out and slept.

\---

Vesna moved slowly out of the bed, on unsteady legs after Kalte was done and asleep. His thighs were stained red as was his cock. It hurt to walk but he had to clean up or risk illness. He had always been of a fragil constitution.

He looked at Kalte; asleep he looked so different -even at twenty-six, he still had a boyish air around him. Soft strands of gold hair covering his relaxed face, pale skin and an outstanding body. Maybe what Vesna had liked more about him, when he had met him, had been his eyes, amber gold. Like melted honey in mid-summer.

Vesna had admitted, since the very beginning, that the King of Warf was attractive. All regal and proud in his white clothes -Warf's military uniform- and hating the world so, so much (as well as Vesna for extension) it just hurt to look at him.

The tragic white King of Warf that had lost his Orchide to Karlann's bandits. There hadn't been any sense of peace for Kalte since then.

Vesna had understood very little of Kalte's world when he had arrived in Warf for the first time. The only thing they both had in common was, probably, the cold weather of their countries -although Warf's was way worse than Solnce's.

He had been naive.

Vesna hadn't thought much of Kalte or Warf at first. Solnce was wealthy, they didn't need alliances; still Vesna's brother (Solnce's regent) had ordered it and it had been done. Vesna had been handed to Warf to be the new Orchide seven months ago. Kalte had loathed him at first sight.

Vesna hadn't returned the sentiment, he had always considered broken things to hold a kind of special beauty. Maybe if he had, things wouldn't had become this way.

Vesna winced when he tried to move.

As he entered the side room, towards the bath -white tiles and white porcelain. Always, white and white and white. Warf with it's impersonal, spotless cold- his legs gave up. It seemed he would have to crawl towards the hot tank. Everything hurt, even breathing -but the worse was…

Ah yes…

Vesna closed his eyes, refusing to recognize the hot liquid pooling under his eyelids and scurrying down his cheeks.

\---

"Kalte," Primmel called softly, a hand carefully shaking him awake.

Kalte groaned, batting Primmel's hand away. He desliked waking early; he felt groggy and slow thanks to the lasting effects of the sedatives -his mouth dry. He had very little memory of what had happened the night before.

"What?" He rasped.

"Vesna has locked himself on the music room again." Primmel paused -shrugging, she let herself fall over her brother in poor elegance (knocking the breath out of him). "It's a very sad song."

"Just move Primmel," Kalte huffed.

"But I don't want Vesna to be sad, Kalte," Primmel pouted. "She is so pretty, she shouldn't feel sad at all."

Kalte opened his mouth and then closed it again, resigned. He sighed. "Is that all?"

Primmel looked at him with her big pale amber eyes. Kalte huffed again, and pulled gently down a curl of her golden hair, making her smile.

Kalte smiled back. His siblings always had that effect on him, Primmel and Hart were one of the few things that remained, that really mattered.

"Well," Primmel seemed dubious to answer; she lifted her weight off of her brother and sat on the bed. "There has been some rumors, of you ending the wedding alliance with Solnce,"

"Is it true, Kalte?"

Kalte flinched at her words. He scrubbed a hand through his face. Primmel would be disappointed in him if he said yes but, as things stood he didn't know how to proceed. Plus, it hadn't been so much of him ending it, it had been more along the lines of him not being able to do it.

Kalte still wasn't sure what was what he had seen that night. The man had looked impressively like Sie; the red eyes, the white hair, the fair skin -but that had been all. There hadn't been any sense of recognition within the man's eyes at seeing Kalte; he had wore Karlann's clothes and spoke in Karlann's mother tongue.

Kalte had tried to speak to him but the man hadn't seemed to understand, and maybe that's why in a last desperate effort, he had hugged him (bringing him down to kneel together), framed his face and with both hands and tried to kiss him. Although that too had been a failure.

The man had said some words (Karlann's words), shaking his head and putting distance between them. After that the man had left and Kalte hadn't followed him.

He did ask Madeira about this, if she knew who this man was -but she hadn't been of any help either.

By the time the ceremony with Vesna was to be held, Kalte was ready to tear down every wall in Ilha's palace to find the man again. To do what? He didn't know. Vesna didn't let him go, though.

And in the end Kalte couldn't swear his heart to the new Orchide. Not after seeing a person so similar to the one he had lost.

Vesna -and his Solnce council- had been offended. And they had demanded to return to Warf immediately to renegotiate the wedding terms or risk a rupture. As it was, Warf had been steady enough this previous months thanks to Solnce's wealth -Kalte couldn't risk it and had had to comply.

They had traveled in the middle of the night and reached Warf by evening, then Kalte had took too many sedatives and now he remembered very little of what had transpired while he had been under their effects.

"No," Kalte didn't think breaking the alliance with Solnce would be wise. "We just had a minor dispute in Ilha. Don't worry."

Primmel nodded. "You should speak with Vesna now."

Or if word had traveled already, with Vesna's older brother. Kalte didn't look forward to that.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first scene was the first one I ever thought of this story.
> 
> I've got a tumblr too: http://i-am-really-sorry.tumblr.com/


	11. Shards of Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the ones reading and commenting, thank you, it means a lot. Also, I was re-reading some parts and there are a lot of mistakes, that make me cringe -but I won't re-write. I am still, of course looking for a beta, so if anyone's willing let me know. 
> 
> As for the chapter, MANY WARNINGS, proceed with CAUTION. There's mentions of Rape and of a child being forced to watch. Child abuse. A LOT OF DARK AHEAD. So if it's triggering for you better not read.

It was the last day of the Carnival and Sie approached carefully the festivities. Whatever they had come to do, whatever Azraq had come to do, it was close to an ending -and surely, it would be acceptable for Sie to interrupt him, now.

"Your majesty?" Sie called out, a little of doubt in his words.

The Queen of Ilha had pointed Sie towards Azraq's direction. She had said, he was busy on the old throne room, and had given Sie the key to open the double doors.

Azraq didn't answer at first, but he did after Sie called a third time. 

"Zahrat Saghira,"

Sie paused then; Azraq hadn't referred to him like that in many, many days. 

"Your majesty?" Sie called again, almost breathless, and noticing the uneven beating of his heart.   
It was just, Sie had wanted to see him, since that night with Kalte, he had wanted to…

Do what?

Sie clasped his right hand over his chest (over his heart) and frowned. His heart sounded as if it wanted to leave his rib cage. 

"Red?" Azraq asked curiously.

Sie looked up at him, and then looked down at his own clothes. It was indeed red. Sie had been wearing red (Karlann's colors) since that night in the gardens.

"I thought you didn't like it,"

Vivid red and soft patterns of gold, soft silk, a robe, and a pair of pants. Even a shawl. To speak the truth bluntly: no, Sie had never liked it -it made him feel exposed, out of his own skin, a little too close to his formal title. Just a courtesan wearing what it was supposed to, with the right colors as well. 

But now…

"I don't mind it," Sie said, really meaning it. He shrugged.

Azraq nodded. "You look good in red,"

Sie smiled at that, small but real. He felt anxious and his body itched to be… closer. It was foolish maybe, but in the end it made no difference. Sie had been waiting since that night in the garden, two days ago; Sie had been waiting and now, Azraq was there and it was all he could do to not fall over his feet, in his rush to… Get to him. 

And he did. Sie got closer, with light feet and a pounding heart and a weird feeling wanting to burst out of his chest. 

Sie ran and collided with the King's chest. Azraq steadied him after -a hand on Sie's back and another on his arm. It felt like hours, but in reality it was but minutes what the both of them remained pressed together (chest to chest).

"Sie?" Azraq asked finally, curious, but not letting go.

Sie's hand clasped over the King's clothes -fingers clutching fabric tightly. This close, he could breath in the usual tangerine and sterile like smell of Azraq's skin. It felt familiar. Safe. 

It felt like home. 

Not Warf, not Karlann -not the palace. Just the arms enveloping him. 

It had taken quite the considerably amount of time, seeing Kalte again, and a good dose of panic to make him realize…

"Are you finished here, your majesty?"

"Yes," Azraq offered. "Madeira just wanted me to look at some of her older hunting weapons. Their current shape, it's not that bad."

"Would you like to eat?"

Azraq shrugged -as much as he could with Sie still wrapped around him. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday,"

Sie frowned (again) and stabbed a finger on the other's chest. "How many times have I told you to not do that,"

Azraq took both of Sie's hands between his own, leaned down and posed his lips on Sie's temple. It felt like a kiss. A brief touch. 

Sie closed his eyes after a while, the fight leaving him altogether. 

"Whatever makes you happy, Zahrat Saghira," the King mumbled to him. He sounded sincere.

"I want you to be healthy, and happy too,"

Azraq shook his head. "Is not about me. Not anymore."

"Your majesty?"

"Is not important. You wanted to eat, let's do that."

\---

Their meal happened unexpectedly quick, it was easy as well -in a way it had not been in quite some time. Madeira gifted them wine and traditional food, it was reach with spice. It was delicious, and his majesty ingested a fair amount. 

"I want to sleep now," Azraq said afterwards. 

It was not usual as the King didn't often delight in idle time, but Sie didn't comment on it. It could very well be, that his majesty was saving energy for the returning trip to Karlann. Or just the fatigue of being a King -even here- wearing down on him. 

As they climbed the bed and rested side to side, Sie thought it could turn into sex as well. And it would be a relief too, seeing as the need to be closer to his majesty had only increased -constantly- since that night in the garden with Kalte, two days ago. 

It had been awfully obvious, maybe, but Sie had been blind before…

That night seeing Kalte again after ten years, hadn't brought him solace or peace or happiness, like he had expected. It only had brought him fear. Fear of being returned to Warf as the Orchide without a say in the matter (after all you didn't choose to be the Orchide, you were chosen). Fear of leaving Karlann, of leaving Hadid and Reigh -but more than that, fear of never seeing Azraq again…

Seeing his mother and his sisters again had paled in comparison. As an afterthought.

Kalte wouldn't allow it. Even less if he got to know what Sie had been doing these past ten years. There was no way Kalte would ever allow his rightful Queen to look for the man that had had him a prisioner all this time. It would also mean a war, which was what Sie had avoided in the first place, when he had accepted to become Azraq's concubine. 

(That was why, when they had seen each other again on the gardens, Sie had faked ignorance; and why  
he had made it as if he did not speak Kalte's language, much less knew who he was.)

Ten years ago, Sie had knelt and pleaded at the borders of Warf, as the Orchide, he had knelt and pleaded for his people, for his King and for the crown prince, before Azraq and his army. He had come ready to die in exchange of his petition. After all, there was no way Warf could stand if Karlann attacked. Warf was weak, it would have been a massacre. 

No one had known of course, only Sie -and in the end Azraq had accepted, only that he hadn't asked for Sie to die. The Orchide of Warf was to become Karlann's King whore in exchange. It was a fair price to pay and Sie had said yes. 

In the following years (the first three in Karlann), Sie had hoped for Kalte to find him, with vehemence. Back then, that night in the garden would have seemed like salvation. Sie had hoped every day for Kalte to come, to get him, untill finally one day he didn't any longer. He learned to live in a desert, he learned to not treat Karlann's people as savages. He learned to see Karlann's King as what he was not as what Warf's legends painted him. He stopped being the Orchide and became just Sie (even the jewel that identified him as Warf's Orchide had been disposed off. It was in Zanbaq's hands now as a thank you for saving Reigh.)

With the years Kalte became something in the back of his memory, something tender that hurt from time to time -but not indispensable. Sie had been in love with him when he had come to Karlann, yes -but that had been ten years ago, and Sie knew now for sure, after seeing him again. That feeling, it no longer existed.

That feeling had probably been a childish notion of love. An ideal, something the both of them had arrogantly believed were entitled to. Now Sie knew, love wasn't really like that. No. Love were entire nights without sleeping because your loved one was sick, from over-working himself, always so strong but so careless with his own person. 

Love was taking time to teach a foreigner your mother tongue, to make him happy, to give him books and spend the little time you had for yourself translating for him, old tales from your home country just to see him smile.

Love was, rare days spent in the garden, playing with your dog and talking about your day. Love was waiting for the night to come to be together again, love was offering to make an outlander Queen, to stop the ill towards him. 

Love was fighting too, for trivial things or things that really mattered. Stupid arguments or hurtful words. Love was giving another person enough weight on you to wound. Love was bad days, good days or all the in between.

Love was respect, love was building a home in each other -and staying. Love was the arms holding him close and the lullaby of a heartbeat. 

It had taken him a while (years) to figure it out. To accept it -but he did now. Sie was in love with the blue King. It had happened gradually and he hadn't noticed but now, he could stop running, he could break free from Warf's remaining chains…

Sie could really become the Malika and offer his heart for the rest of his life. 

He fell asleep thinking that, counting Azraq's breaths and borrowing closer to him. It was a dreamless sleep.

\---

Sie woke slowly by mid-afternoon to an empty bed. It was sunny outside (a blazing sun up in the sky) and he ventured out of the room to try and find what it was that had made Azraq wake up. 

Sie didn't have to look much, he found him sitting in one of the open halls of the Ilha's palace -the open halls that connected with the gardens-

Azraq was sitting on the floor, his back resting on the wall -a bottle of warm liqueur and two cups at his side, over a tray-

Sie walked closer and sat at his side. It was a nice view, part of the palace and garden painted in gold. It gave the atmosphere a dream-like quality. Ilha was without a doubt a beautiful place; the vegetation and weather mixed well, Madeira's kingdom seemed to exhale magic, sometimes.

"Zahrat Saghira," Azraq said, acknowledging Sie's presence at his side. 

"It means little flower, yes?" Sie mused. 

"Little flower," Azraq repeated as an affirmative, taking one of the cups and drinking from there. "You are an Orchide."

Sie sighed, rubbed his eyes. 'I no longer am.' He thought but didn't say.

"Why would you wake up?" Sie asked instead. 

"It was hot," Azraq answered simply. "There's enough of Madeira's alcohol, you can drink if you want."

Sie looked down at the tray, the bottle was halfway already. Still he decided to indulge, and served the other cup for himself. It tasted bitter as it burnt down on his throat. "It's really strong," Sie said roughly, putting the cup down. 

Azraq shrugged. "Not to me,"

Sie tilted his head, curiosity moving him. "Your majesty?"

"I was born in Hazan. This is hardly anything compared to what you drink there."

Sie hesitated. Hazan was the lowest of the lands of Karlann. No man's land, a place without a hope or a King. Hazan had his own rules -and as far as Sie understood there were non too pretty. Neither kind. Hazan, was an ugly place. 

Azraq drank again, placed the cup down and stared straight ahead. He seemed so far away, maybe lost in a memory. However his voice was steady when he kept talking. "I was born in a whore house, on Hazan's lowest district." 

"My mother, she was a good woman, I have little memory of her -when she died, my sister raised me. Zanbaq was a little errand boy in the neighbor whore house, that house was a little bit more expensive than the one my mother and sister worked on,"

Azraq sighed. "My mother wasn't from Karlann, neither was my sister; their appearance was different, they had fair skin and blond hair, blue eyes. It made them good on their work. They earned a high profit, thanks to this."

Sie looked at him -concern flickering strongly on his chest- but didn't interrupt.

"My sister used to say that, I got the eyes of my mother," Azraq touched the rim of his empty cup distractedly. "I asked many times why they had the skin of that color, my mother never told me, but my sister did at the end. The end being what their lives was like, came really soon. My mother was from Warf."

"She was a girl from a middle wealth family, not a noble, just really beautiful. The King at the time saw her at the square, took an interest on her and courted her. The King of course was married, had an Orchide and three children,"

Sie inhaled sharply. Azraq was talking about Kalte's father, the previous King of Warf, Eis, now deceased. To Sie, Eis had been like a second father, always offering advice and sweets, and apologizing from Kalte's rude behavior. He had teached Sie many things, including proper court etiquette. 

"In Warf marriage is seen as something sacred. An affair out of marriage, having a mistress or a lover is punished with death," Azraq continued. Sie nodded, knowing this. "My mother had a boyfriend, my sister's father, and she wasn't interested in the King, at all. He didn't take this well, neither did he take well the fact, my mother was already pregnant with my sister and was going to be wed soon." 

"At the end he called her to the palace and raped her, but that wasn't enough. Eis wanted to have her, not mattering the price, he also wanted to punish her for not loving him, so he sold her to the lowest whore house in Hazan," 

Sie looked down at his hands, not knowing what to say. 

"Eis visited her every month, my sister was born in Karlann. When she turned fourteen, Eis tasted her too," Azraq paused. "I was born the following year after that, my father as much as my sister knew, could have been anyone of the Karlann men, that visited my mother night after night. I remember her screams mostly, when she was taken to the back room to be given to many men overnight, they liked to hear her beg. She died when I was three."

"My sister raised me afterwards. She did as much as she could for me, but with every month, Eis visits and every client, she became paler, and weaker. She did fall in love with a man that didn't visit often though, he was different from the others, well-spoken, polished, rich -still it didn't matter in the end. I was seven when she died, Eis was angry at her for being in love, again, he often called her with my mother's name, he took her to the back room and me as well. Eis chained me to the leg of the bed and made me watch as he raped her, and then fourteen more men after him. By the time it was over, they only snapped her neck."

"I was left there, chained for two weeks with my sister's corpse. Sometimes they brought me food, sometimes they didn't. Then, I was taken out of the room but they didn't unchain me. They fastened the chain tighter around my neck and strapped me to a wooden post outside the establishment. Zanbaq withstood beatings just to give me water." 

"I remained chained there until Eis next visit, with no food. The remaining seven years I was in Hazan, I became used to the chains and only ever ate what Eis gave me, as that were his orders. He was a fanatic of poisons and he tried many on me. The food never had enough poison to kill me, just enough poison to make me hurt. One of his favorites was the Raiha Azul; the more I ate, the sicker I got, so I learned to eat little. I developed high tolerance to poisoning."

"Eis also hired a killer, a mercenary, to teach me the profession, as he said I wasn't pretty enough to be sold as a whore and I had to give him gold somehow. I was unchained only, when he needed me to kill someone without it being traced to him. Eis learned of my friendship with Zanbaq and made sure to use it as leverage to always make me come back to the wooden post." 

"Until one day after seven years, the well-spoked man my sister had loved, showed up again at the whore house and asked to buy me. Eis had made clear I wasn't to be sold but even in Hazan it holds more wight the words of a Karlann King, than the words of an outsider. Hadid's father bought me, then Zanbaq at my request. He freed us, gave us a place to stay and teached us how to read. He said, he always loved my sister but he had been engaged to Hadid's mother since they were children. He said he was sorry, he couldn't save her,"

"And offered to give me his last name. He said he didn't have long and that Hadid would probably be killed by the council once he passed away. I accepted. He died when I turned nineteen and Hadid turned seven. And then I was a King, and you know the rest."

"You came to Warf with your whole Karlann army to take revenge on Eis, and I stopped you, when I pleaded to you at the borders. That's the debt I have been paying." Sie finished, still trembling from the shock, anger and sadness, Azraq's story had brought him.

"Now you now," Azraq admitted, finally looking at him. 

"Azraq-"

"And you are free." The King wishpered, running down a knuckle over Sie's cheek. 

"Wha--" Sie's eyes went wide as Azraq placed distance between them again.

"Schenee Sie, former Orchide of Warf, at this moment, as Karlann's current King, I declare you free of your duty and your debt paid. You are no longer a concubine and you are exiled from Karlann's lands indefinitely. You can do whatever you wish but you can't stay in Queen's Madeira castle either,"

"Azraq-" Sie called desperately but it was no use. Various sets of feet approached quickly. 

"You will be escolted to the nearest city. There's gold waiting for you once you are outside." Azraq stood up. "Guards," he said to the group of men that had arrived. "Take him outside."

"Don't do this," Sie pleaded but this time, the King didn't listen. "Azraq," he called once again to the man's back as the guards took him away. 

\---

END OF PART/BOOK I.  
\---


	12. First meeting I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a flashback.

The funeral was held at night. Unusually enough, or maybe accurately so, it rained during the service. Karlann mourned it's King and the sky let it know with its own kind of crying. The memorial speech was given by Zamarrid, just a simple concubine, making all the nobles sneer at her boldness -it was a farce as in a matter of hours, the heads of the Council would start asking, demanding, her services.

Zamarrid didn't cry, but she did tremble through the whole ordeal. 

Of all the people present, maybe the most affected, was the little son of the King, he was aged seven and didn't know better. He cried as his father was buried in sand, he cried as Zamarrid finished her speech, he cried as the service ended -his sobs mingling with the calming lull of the rain; he didn't scream though, just as his name, he was strong. 

The little prince would be dead in matter of days. 

The heads of the Council, greedy for power and Karlann's wealth, would murder him in cold blood while hiding in shadows. Karlann would have no King then, not of a direct blood line at least. Poison, maybe.

Azraq looked at him, Hadid was still close to where his father had been buried; the kid hadn't moved an inch, all clad in black and wet from the rain. It had already been an hour since the funeral had been held. 

"Aren't you going to go to him?" Zanbaq asked, appearing at his side -he had his arms crossed and his eyes wet. It could have been tears or simply the rain; with Zanbaq it could have been anything. "The kid looks up to you."

"Not only me," Azraq answered. "He is highly attached to you."

"You want me to go to speak to him, then?" Zanbaq asked curiously patient. "We can't leave him there."

Azraq shook his head. "Go change your wet clothes inside the palace and look for some of Hadid's clothes too."

"Is it an order?-- I can, I can go to him, I-" Zanbaq said unusually distressed, agitated. His friend had gotten attached to the little prince as well.

"I will go to him."

Zanbaq bit the inside of his lip, doubting. He didn't move to do what he had been asked to. To Azraq it was obvious he wanted to run and comfort the kid. 

Azraq placed a hand on Zanbaq's shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "Go inside," he repeated simply.

At what Zanbaq finally nodded and complied. 

Once alone with the little prince, Azraq walked towards the previous King grave. He sat by Hadid's side -the little prince remained standing in silence, looking down to where his father had been put to rest. 

Hadid's silence lasted until the rain stopped. Azraq estimated it was about four hours. 

"Why are you here?" Hadid asked, so quietly. 

"Because as long as I live, you will never be alone," 

"Is it true, what the maids say? That you we are not related by blood?"

Azraq took his time to answer, not knowing how to proceed with that question. "I am to you what you wish, a friend, a brother or a mere protector. But, Hadid, know that I will always be here."

It was a simple truth, stated in simple words. Azraq had promised to the previous King to look out for his little son, and he intended to do just that. As long as he breathed, Hadid was safe. 

As long as Zanbaq breathed, Hadid was safe. 

"Can I ask one last thing?" Hadid asked as if he were with one of his tutors; his voice breaking thinly at the end. 

"Yes." 

"Can I hug you, big brother?" 

Azraq didn't answer anything to that. He stood swiftly -not caring about the wetness of his clothes or the dirt- turned towards Hadid and lifted him up. The child stared at him with pained red eyes, and held on tight. He wept on Azraq shoulder, hiding his face and clasping his fingers hard, on Azraq's clothes.

"I am here, little Hadid," Azraq murmured, walking -with the kid on his arms- towards the palace. 

Zanbaq hovered close already changed and with a new pair of clothes for Hadid. He extended his arms immediately, asking for Azraq to pass his charge -but the kid only grabbed Azraq tighter.

Zanbaq frowned. "Hadid?"

The child didn't respond. 

"I will stay with him tonight," Azraq cleared calmly. Maybe the whole year, he thought, until he made sure -no one attempted to take the little prince's life.

Zanbaq sighed. "Yes, of course. You are King now,"

"Not officially," Azraq admitted. "At any rate, that can wait."

That night Hadid slept curled on Azraq's chest. He cried until he fell asleep and hiccuped for Azraq to not leave him alone, not after his mother -at birth- and father had. Not again. 

Azraq murmured quiet words at him, he recited old poems and tales, his sister used to wishper at him in Hazan, in bad days where she had gotten beaten the night before and Azraq feared for her life. Feared being left all alone. 

She would take him on her arms, and cradle him to her chest. Lulling him to sleep with poems and old tales of far away lands. Of places they were going to see one day, when they were free. "I am here, and you won't ever be alone. My strong blue stone. You are my strength." She would say. 

"Little prince," Azraq said. "Like iron, like your name, you will not bend. I am here, I am here and you are not alone."

Azraq did not sleep through the night. Staying alert for any upcoming threat to Hadid's life -but none came. He had to thank that, to his vicious reputation maybe. Or to the Council being more careful than ever -whatever the case Hadid remained alive, and to Azraq that was all that mattered. 

He only had to keep his watch on Hadid the next ten years, until he was fit to rule. Until he could stand as Karlann's rightful King. It was but a little price to pay in exchange for the freedom Hadid's father had given him. And he liked the kid well enough, Hadid made him remember Dame often, his sister and how much she had sacrificed for him. 

As he looked Hadid sleep, Azraq hoped, for his sister to rest in peace. She would have been proud to see him become an older brother, he thought. 

\---

The coronation happened a week after. It was a simple affair. Azraq made it so, that it happened without much noise. Hadid, Zanbaq and him, they were still mourning the previous King. To them this was not a celebration, but a mere formality, a necessity. 

Azraq was young, too young to be taken seriously but that was a minor concern. Hadid's father had taught him enough about ruling a kingdom, and he would manage. 

After the ceremony was done and the Council had pleaded loyalty to him, Zanbaq found him -Hadid grabbing Zanbaq's clothes, trailing behind. The both of them had decided on turning to look over the little prince. 

"What now?" his friend asked. 

Azraq extended an arm towards the little prince and Hadid ran at him, almost climbing his leg. 

"War," Azraq answered tonelessly. Keeping his anger in check. 

Zanbaq smirked at that. "I have been waiting, Warlord." 

It was no difficult to get the Council's approval for this. Before Hadid's father had passed away, Azraq had been on a quest to conquering and subduing the neighboring land to their borders. Every defeated lider of a land annexed to Karlann took a seat in the Council and pleaded loyalty. Karlann grew in power and in health steadily fast. Aside from that his now formed alliance with Queen Madeira and his aid to her cause had consolidated him further. 

The Council had nodded at his obvious intentions of devastating Warf. There had never been a solid -good- relationship between the two of them. Karlann and Warf too different to even begin to understand each other. It was mutual deslike and it was well known Warf was full of curious treasures like their elusive Orchide, a healing plant it was said to cure even the deadliest of sickness, anything at all. Their jewels and beautiful women who would make formidable slaves. The Council knew it would bring a high profit to them. 

It was also well known Warf was weak; their army rounding three thousand of men, while Karlann withstood with eight thousand. As a bet, it was a sure one. Azraq didn't care much for the wealth or the slaves, though. This was not for Karlann, this was personal. 

"I have heard what they say about you," Zanbaq offered amused. "Even before you were King, and were only the head General of Karlann's army. That destruction follows wherever you go. A heartless warrior who shows no mercy."

"You and I know, is hardly like that." Azraq said unperturbed. 

"But it is," Zanbaq smirked. "The smell of blood trails after you my love. Is a nice smell."

The only thing that had stood before Karlann and Warf before, had been Hadid's father -who had been soft hearted and prudent to a high extreme. "There's no need to kill a rat just because you can. As long as they don't harm you, let them leave." The previous King would often say. 

"I would rather not," Azraq commented dryly. "Hadid will frighten."

Hadid's father was long gone now. 

"What are we to do regarding Warf, then?"

There was no emotion in Azraq's voice as he ordered, "Start moving the army. The first half of it. We are setting camp at Warf's borders."

\---

Karlann had already set camp on Warf's borders and as King, Azraq had been granted a tent, a luxurious one, he had little use for. At least Hadid remained inside it with him, and the child took full advantage of the makeshit mattress and many pillows the tent had. The kid was quiet, he had been for a while and as night crept on them fast, he was sure to fall asleep before the moon reached the highest point in the sky. Azraq had learned his sleeping habits and breathing patterns so far. 

"You called for me?" Zanbaq asked entering the threshold of the tent. 

"You will sleep with him today," Azraq answered. "I will remain with the men tonight."

Zanbaq nodded. "Are we to attack soon?"

"In a week or so,"

"It will help their morale to see you, just as if you were another of them." Zanbaq pondered. 

"I am just another of them." Azraq supplied easily. 

"No," Zanbaq frowned. "You are a King,"

Azraq didn't answer to that. He didn't think this was worth arguing for. Zanbaq had always had too much hope on him. "Remain here," he ordered. 

It was a calm night, shared with his men -keeping watch. The various fires of the camp keeping them warm enough. Azraq didn't mind if the fire made their presence known to Warf, let them see, it would be a lost battle for Warf's army anyway. Many of his men talked, laughed and munched on dry fruits -especial from Karlann's region- to keep alert. These men were a family to each other and they had welcomed Azraq well enough since the very beginning. Hadid's father had said it was because, they bowed to strength -whatever the case, a docile army was good news. 

"Ya have that fucking beautiful boy in your bed and yet ya're here boy. Ya should be makin' him scream right now," One of his colonels said. One twice Azraq's age. Many of the men surrounding them snickered at that. 

"With ya'r respect Colonel, but I don't think anyone has managed to mount that mare, yet." Another soldier spoke amused at the topic of conversation.

"What yar mouth boy, yar offending the King's woman."

Azraq sighed knowing many people believed this to be the case, when in reality it wasn't. "He is not."

Another soldier watched him with caution. "Really?"

Azraq nodded. "Really,"

"Can we court him?" Three soldiers asked at the same time.

"By all means, if you don't mind a beating or two. Zanbaq is difficult," Azraq shrugged. "He doesn't belong to me, he is his own person."

"So ya don't have anyone to warm yar bed?" The same Colonel asked, a frown on his face. 

"Is not a priority,"

"But yar so young, ya should be enjoying yarself."

Azraq had been with women before but it hadn't made an impression. He had no time for that, not with so many things weighting on him. His revenge on Eis and Warf -along with Hadid's safety- were more important than any other thing. 

"I have the whole of my father's harem." Azraq didn't really had ever used it but he did have it. 

"Aye boy, it's not the same." Another older man, one of his eight Generals said, joining in. "A Courtesan, a prostitute, a whore. Never trust the lot of them, to the highest to the lowest. They can make a man meet his most unfortunate end."

Azraq wondered what would they think, if he told them his mother had been one. And his sister as well. "I have an affinity to them, I guess. Courtesans."

"Well, who doesn't?" The Colonel cheered high spirited.

At what his whole unity hollered with laughter. The topic was quickly forgotten after that.

\---

It started like an itch by midnight and it only grew after that. The following day by mid morning, Azraq had to do something about it.

"Colonel Khayr," Azraq called out, taking the man aside to a secluded area.

"Yar majesty?" 

"You are in charge of the whole army for now," he didn't trust the Generals, not by a long shot - Colonel Khayr was different to them in many ways; it was a gamble but it was his best choice. "I am going to do intel on Warf's capital for short intervals at time during this week. Zanbaq is busy with Hadid but if anything of importance happened you can go to him. You are to say I am on my tent if someone asks for me. No one can know I am not here," 

Khayr looked at him and nodded in understanding.

"You are a General now," Azraq continued, "Make one of the eight a Colonel instead. The one you consider best."

"It's an honor." The man said bowing humble.

"You deserve it. Dismissed." 

Azraq didn't stop to wonder anything else after that. Warf's side borders were precariously close to their Capital. It only took him a hour to reach his destination. It was snowing. 

It had been snowing the whole day but by this hour it had worsened. Warf had placed an alert thanks to the weather. There wasn't many people outside, and the few that were didn't concern themselves with him. To them, he was probably only a slave sent on an errand. Still Azraq kept going, he had an idea where to go. To the heart of the Capital, surely there…

It was. The palace. Warf's palace and home of the Royal family. Eis's palace.

Azraq stared at it. It was different than Karlann's one. With no open spaces and gardens. It looked like a fortress, constructed of white stone. It looked cold. 

It had been four years. 

As the storm grew, Azraq wondered if Eis still remembered the boy whom he had feed poison for seven years. Eis brilliant experiment. To this day Azraq, still had trouble eating. He hadn't needed it back then and he surely didn't need it now. 

Azraq had become an expert on poisons. The taste and smell, how fast they could kill and how much pain they would inflict. Eis had made him remember very well; in Hazan, back then, there had been foods he only took a tablespoon of, and no more or he would have fevers for weeks. He had learned this by trial and error. His only constant food had been the tangerines, Zanbaq stole for him from his patrons. 

What would Eis do if he knocked on the doors of his palace and demanded his off spring as a prize, as payment. The three of them made slaves, two boys and a girl. 

(Would the man, remember Azraq mother, then? His sister?)

Azraq would sell them to Hazan and he would have Eis head hang from Karlann's higher tower.

Azraq sat on one of the lifeless bare trees that adorned the path to the palace. He sat under the raging snow and waited. He had waited so much for this day to come, revenge had kept him alive between every painful day spent in Hazan. To think of Eis blood staining his hands. It had been his only motivation living as a dog in the slums. 

Warf and its King. Warf and all its people (innocent ones) everything was going to burn and by the end…

"Are you alright?"

Azraq snapped his head up, startled -but tried to not show it. He hadn't noticed the person speaking to him getting close.

The stranger swallowed, looking at him with something close to wonder. 

There was a pause. The man was holding an umbrella over Azraq's already wet body -snow melting over his head and seeping through his head. It was foolish as the man was now getting wet too. 

This unnecessary show of kindness was futile as Azraq had been uder the snow for a while, it would only serve to make the man sick later. He didn't look strong; fine bones and a lithe figure, fair skin and red eyes that glittered like jewels. Even his hair was white.

He was… beautiful. 

"Maybe you can come with me?" The man asked cautious. "I will give you a hot tea and dry cothes." 

Azraq tilted his head but didn't move. "Where to?"

The man smiled briefly. "I live here." He said, indicating the palace.

It was maybe fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Book II is heavy in regards of flashbacks. Also if anyone is wondering, this story will do have a happy ending.


	13. First meeting II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still looking for a beta which means not betaed. If anyone is interested msg me at tumblr.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER IS A FLASHBACK.

Azraq didn't say anything as he was carefully sneaked through Warf's palace walls. The man who lead him seemed to know really well the place, and its hiding rooms. 

"I grew playing hide and seek here," the man voiced. Azraq hadn't asked, he wasn't interested. This place was about to crumble in matter of days, and nothing would stop its downfall. 

"I'm sorry, we have to hide," 

Azraq nodded, not caring one way or another. 

"It's just I'm not allowed to be alone with men," the man said, looking down at his feet, visibly ashamed of this. 

Azraq got interested then, "Why?" He asked with curious calculating eyes. 

"Silly laws, and traditions," the man answered. "Outdated ways, but I have to obey nonetheless," 

"Is this a common occurrence then? You bringing men to your room through hiding halls?" 

The man stopped, red eyes narrowed dangerously. "I could have your head by the way you talked to me. I could make you kneel savage," 

Ah… there it was, the people of Warf and their stupid pride. "My knees?"

The man snarled, fierce and wild -an exotic white peacock if Azraq had ever seen one. "It was a mistake to bring you here," 

"It's too late now," Azraq said darkly amused by the young man's distress. "We are here alone in this hiding passage, you can scream but they won't hear you… you could fight but you are not warrior. What can you do?" 

"I can dance very well," the man admitted sour, sighing. "That won't help me."

"Is that what you are?" Azraq asked. "A dancer of the King? His mistress?"

The man laughed. "In a sense but no, I belong to the crown prince," 

"Are you a cow?" 

The man frowned not understanding Azraq's answer. 

"You belong to the crown prince," Azraq stated. "A thing, an object, you belong to him without a saying in it, like a cow," 

The man opened his mouth to answer but deflated immediately. "Well, it's the first time I have been called a cow."

Azraq shrugged. "There's always a first time for everything."

"I would say," 

"So you are a Lord?" 

The man paused. "You really don't have an idea of who I am, do you?" 

"No." Azraq answered truthful. 

"Sie," the man said. "To you I'm just Sie. You can call me that." 

It was after that, they managed to reach the strange man's rooms. Azraq paused, glancing around with enough curiosity. It was no usual room, certainly not a servant's room or even a courtesan's. It had a big four poster bed, a table with chairs of marble close to one of the windows, and a sort of settee (the room was white with little touches of gold; rugs, furniture and shades.) It was luxurious in a very sensitive case. A doll's house, Zanbaq would probably call it. 

"It's an interesting place," Azraq admitted after a while. 

The man, Sie, just shook his head. "Sometimes I get bored of so much white." 

"Yes, it seems lacking." Azraq admitted dryly.

Sie chuckled. "I can make a maid bring us tea, if you would like, or do you need to be on your way?" 

Azraq shook his head. "I can stay for a while."

"Are you sure, it won't be trouble for you?" Sie hesitated. "You… Are you a slave?"

Azraq thought about that for a minute, about Hazan, the slums and whore-houses -a place this person in front of him would never even know about. A slave would have been a better fate than what Azraq was given, 'Just a dog' Eis would say mocking him with scrapes of poisoned food.

"A freed man," Azraq said. 

"Oh, I'm glad." Sie smiled, something soft and pretty on his face. "Let's drink something in your honor then."

The tea was fast to arrive, and the maid polite enough to not ask why her master had required two cups, instead of one. 

Azraq made a face at the hot drink in his hands. "I'm not used to this."

"Tea?" 

"It tastes shitty," 

The man, Sie, burst out laughing. "Yeah, everyone to whom I have offered thinks so, but says it more nicely than you."

"Everyone but men?" 

Sie smiled pleased, sipping at his tea. "Yes, everyone but men."

"Women?" Azraq voiced, still dubious about the tea. "If you can't speak with men because the crown prince thinks you are going to fuck them, what security is there you won't do the same with women?" 

Sie paused, his loose posture going tense. "I am not really interested in women, nor in men, not matter what the crown prince may think."

"You care for him." Azraq noted clinically. Years of reading and expecting certain reactions from people told him as much. "You are faithful."

"Too bad to him I'm only a childhood friend," Sie said still smiling although now it was strained. 

"You are an Idiot."

Azraq had never really gotten what that was that made people fall in love. He could say he had loathed the notion in his former years living in Hazan; love didn't exist in whore-houses, just misery, greed and sex -his point of view had only recently changed after Hadid's father had come back looking for Azraq's sister, because to not forget such a pitiful existence as what she had been (as what both of them, Azraq and her had been) after seven years… That had been something. That had been love, probably. 

Azraq didn't hate the word (love) anymore, but still it stood: it was weakness, foolishness and stupidity. "Being in love clouds your judgment."

"Yes," 

"You don't fear it?" 

Sie put down his cup. "Sometimes I think, it will destroy me but I think it's worth it."

"Fool."

"Mmm," Sie didn't say anything to that. 

Afternoon came soon after that, and for Azraq it meant going back to the camp with his soldiers. It was for the best, as he honestly didn't know why it was he had delayed so much already, speaking with this man. 

"Are you coming to visit some other time?"

"Who knows," Azraq said, as he entered the hidden halls.

\---

Azraq did come back the next day, not really knowing why -but following the secret passages, he was soon inside the white haired man's room. 

It was early-morning and he wasn't there; Azraq didn't know why he had expected otherwise, but he took the time to inspect the room closely. He looked closely at the shelves, boxes and personal belongings. Nothing stood out. Practical and impersonal in a sense, or maybe it was the white that colored the whole of it (the whole of the palace) that gave off that impression. 

He stood there for what seemed like hours but it couldn't have been that much time. The man, or Sie, Azraq supposed he should call him, was back by lunch time. 

He was startled to see him inside his room but made no fuss, and smiled at him once the surprise had vanished. 

"You are back," 

Azraq shrugged. "You wanted me to visit you again."

Sie chuckled. "It's only, it gets lonely from time to time."

Azraq could only imagine, being the crown prince's toy couldn't be that easy. "Too bad we can't leave your rooms. There's good weather outside."

Sie glanced at the windows, biting his lower lip. It was a good day with sun high in the sky. "We could…Maybe," 

Azraq waited expectantly at that. 

"Kal- uh, the crown prince is preoccupied with other things at the moment, and my maids won't say a word about me having a friend," Sie hummed. "There's also some sections of the gardens where no one goes, and for the rest of the population of the palace, they won't care that much, is their word against mine anyway."

"What about your King?" Azraq asked narrowing his eyes. 'What about Eis.' He thought.

"He never leaves his rooms these days," Sie answered sadly. "He is tired of all this ruling, he wants to retire."

"Ah," 

"So I suppose we could," Sie nodded to himself. "We could take an stroll to one of the less visited gardens, if you would like."

The gardens were nothing like Azraq had ever seen, there was snow and some dried parts but there was greenery too, brittle with hope of spring. It wasn't man-made as the gardens of Karlann, it just was, and it was beautiful in the way tranquility sometimes is. 

"What do you think?" 

"It's alright." 

"Well then, you are hard to please," Sie teased happily. "Here you are mocking the royal gardens and I don't even know your name," 

"Azraq,"

Sie stopped. "Aazrak," he repeated with heavy accent.

"No," Azraq corrected. "You don't say it like that, it's pronounced Azraq, it means blue stone." 

Sie's eyes went a little round with curiosity. "I will learn to say it, I promise."

"Alright," 

"It's an interesting name, who w---"

Sie's voice was interrupted suddenly by a chorus of giggles. The white haired man stopped speaking and tensed. After the giggles stopped, there were heavy moaning and man's voice panting the filthiest words Azraq had heard in a while. 

"We should go," Sie said pale and obviously unhappy. "I thought he would be gone today."

"He?" Azraq asked. 

"The crown prince." Sie admitted moodily. 

"Quiet," the man with the decadent voice said to his companion. "I think I head voices." 

Sie winced. "You will have to hide, only for a minute as I speak to him. He will be gone soon enough." 

And Azraq did, behind a column (a big, white, sturdy one.), he waited. 

Sie stood patiently in the middle of the garden, when a man emerged out of the bushes. The man, the crown prince, was closing his buckle and slipping on his shirt; a woman came close behind the man as well, but her clothes were in worse condition, her dress was open and her breasts were showing, bare and white, full of little nip marks. 

She cried out an apology at Sie and covered herself the best she could, while she ran out of the scene as if her life depended of it. 

The man though, he only sagged, rubbing his face tiredly. "Sie," he said, he looked frustrated. "I didn't mean for you to see that."

"Surely not," Sie said calmly. "But I did and it's not the end of the world. I've always known you like them, women, and there's not much deference between watching and knowing anyway."

Azraq thought about how that wasn't true, but stored it away for later. 

"I can spend the rest of the day with you." The crown prince offered, he looked a little bit like a kicked dog. "We can go to the tea shop you like so much, the one with exotic tastes in the city."

"No," Sie was kind but firm in his answer. "I want to remain here."

The man wrinkled his nose and Sie shook his head. "Not here, but maybe the next garden, the one with the pond, it's quiet there."

"I can stay--"

"Not today Kalte,"

The crown prince nodded, his face was pale and it looked like he would have liked to say something else but he didn't - he started walking away after that. 

"That was easy, him leaving you do as you please," Azraq noted. 

"Guilt can do wonders for a man," 

"So we are going to the garden with the pond?" 

Sie was quiet for a while but he spoke in the end. "Why aren't you asking about it?" 

There were many answers to that, one being Warf's Royal family were dead people walking already. After the week was done and Warf had been took, Azraq had thought of killing Eis and selling his offspring to Hazan but now thinking coldly, maybe it was for the best if all them ended up dead. 

As for Sie, Azraq could maybe…

What?

Spare him? 

Sie had done nothing to him, but all the people of Warf hadn't either. And war was never kind to the ones being conquered--

"Aazrak?" 

"Azraq," he corrected patiently. 

Sie smiled sheepish. "Yes, that will take some time."

"You have only a week."

Sie tilted his head, frowning, not understanding Azraq's words. "Why?"

"It's not important," Azraq said and in the end it really wasn't, at least not now.

\---

The garden with the pond was not an outstanding spot; it was perhaps the less groomed garden, a patch of land with drying rose bushes and a little frozen like. Azraq thought he could be doing better things than being here in this barren land, but against all of his internal doubts he stayed. 

"It's an awful place to start a friendship, I know,"

"A friendship?"

Sie turned a faint pink. "Yes, a friendship."

Azraq snorted. "You presume I like you that much?"

Sie huffed, "Well yes, you wouldn't be here if not."

"Or maybe I just have ill intentions towards you and Warf's Royal family." 

"Do you?" Sie asked, a little confused, a little skeptical and a little wide eyed. He was a picture of innocence and naivety -obviously sheltered from the horrors of the real world. A doll to show off, living the perfect live in a little doll house. 

Azraq found out then with disgusting clarity, he liked that about the white haired man. 

"No." He lied with a straight face. Ignorance was a bliss, was it not?

"Then there's no problem," 

"I would guess," Azraq said. 

"Perhaps we should have just stayed inside the room and drank some more tea, eating some biscuits," Sie mussed. "This garden has nothing, it's ugly, I'll have to speak with the gardeners."

"The weather kills your flowers, it's no ones fault."

"I'm hoping they can make it better."

"Hope," Azraq shrugged. "You may have that luxury."

"Pardon?"

Azraq shook his head and they didn't say anything else through their walk towards Sie's rooms. The hidden halls were something Azraq was getting used to effortlessly. 

Once inside the rooms, the first thing Azraq noted was a stark of color against the plain white. Like a stain in a clean robe, it stood out. 

"That's new."

Sie walked slowly towards the marble table, he lifted out a hand to touch with careful fingers the dozen of roses (red) arranged with mastery in a vase. The were fresh and lively, not one dry. 

"It must have been expensive." Azraq commented, knowing how in Warf flowers were paid in gold. 

"It's the third bouquet this week." 

"You have found him with three women this week then." Azraq stated; he supposed it was a valid conclusion.

Sie smiled tiredly. "Just two. The first bouquet was just because he was in the city, close to the market dealing with some concerns of the people and the color reminded him of my eyes." 

Azraq didn't answer anything to that. 

"Lovely, are they not?"

"I'm not fond of them, flowers," 

Because of the Raiha Azul and because of his sister, Dame, who used to cover the smell of her sickness with daisies perfume. 

"A shame."

"Yes," Azraq said tonelessly, having this uncontrolled urge to crush the roses under his boots. "A shame."

\---

"Are you coming tomorrow?" Sie asked eagerly as the sun started to set and Azraq got ready to leave. 

"Maybe," 

Sie started softly. "You can come at any time but at night. I enjoy your company." 

Azraq glanced at him. "Why not at night?" 

"The crown prince will be here." Sie sighed. "He won't take kindly to me having a male friend no matter my reasons," 

"Then he is an hypocrite." 

Sie ignored that and pressured ahead. "Are you coming?" 

"By mid morning." Azraq answered before disappearing between the hidden halls again. He didn't wait to hear Sie's response, walking quickly towards the exit. 

Khayr gave him news as he returned to the camp, nothing extraordinary had happened, only Zanbaq hissing at the poor man for not knowing where Azraq had gone -and then beating two soldiers that had proposed marriage to him, and then beating two more for challenging him, and demanding to bed him as a reward. 

Men tended to underestimate Zanbaq's strength, thanks to his looks. They were always amazed after they had fought him though. Zanbaq was good at it, Azraq knew this first hand, after all he had been the one to teach him.

"Anything else?" 

The General shook his head.

"Then I'll remain with the men by the fire," 

"Your majesty," the General said with obvious discomfort. "Is only Lord Zanbaq has been in bad humor all day wondering where you went to. He asked to be notified when you came back." 

Azraq had contemplated that Zanbaq would act this way in his absence. It didn't surprise him. "Tell him I'm here," 

"Where have you been?" Zanbaq spat at him when he found him. "You were gone yesterday and today to."

"Warf." Azraq answered simply. 

"Why?" 

"I wanted to meet the city where my mother was born before I destroy it," 

This answer seemed to placate his friend enough. Zanbaq sighed, he had his long hair loose for a change (not in the usual braid), and he looked younger, soft somehow -a little bit feminine. 

"Why the hair?" 

"Hadid wouldn't fall asleep, he was waiting for you all day and, in the end he got distracted by combing it. It hurt like motherfucker, my hair it's full of knots now."

"I am planing on going tomorrow too." 

Zanbaq cursed. "I will come with you."

"No." Azraq said set. "You will stay here with Hadid," 

Zanbaq opened his mouth to protest, but Azraq shook his head. 

"Go to sleep at the tent with Hadid, I'll stay outside."

"Fine," Zanbaq said after a while, giving up. 

Azraq watched him go and how many of his soldiers turned their eyes to him. What Zanbaq wanted of him, he couldn't give -and oftentimes he found himself wishing his friend could find happiness in other place… but Zanbaq was difficult and he would never forget Azraq's promise. 

He went to one of the fires and made smal talk with his men with little attention. 

As he he watched the fire burn he thought of red roses and red eyes. He wasn't deluded enough to not think, it wouldn't be a complication.

 

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I feel like no one reads author notes? Haha that's why I try not speak much here but well, you can skip this if you want. 
> 
> And yes, I now it's been a month and I have no excuse, I mean I got distracted and I am struggling with my writer's block but yeah, in my defense Azraq is difficult to handle. 
> 
> Aside from that I feel like I should tell you today ended a story I was following and it makes me sad. It was a favorite, Black Marion of A. Cereana in Fictionpress, you should totally read it if you have time and also the Almost series by Averick, I'm hoping she will write the 4 book soon. 
> 
> Anyway see you soon hopefully.


	14. First meeting III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not betaed.

Azraq didn’t know why it was that every time he said he wouldn’t keep coming any longer, he kept coming back. Sie always asked the same question every time the both of them parted ways, ‘Are you coming tomorrow?’

Sometimes Azraq didn’t answer, sometimes he did –he always came to see him anyway. It had been five days already, and their time together (Warf’s time altogether) was thinning with every passing minute. Azraq had said a week, and only two days remained.

Zanbaq grew angry as well with every visit Azraq made to Warf; his friend was distrustful, confused and worse than that, hurt.

‘Is it a woman?’ he had asked horse after a screaming match (between the two of them), on one of the days Azraq had come back to the encampment particularly late.

‘Are you going there to fuck a woman every time?’

Azraq had said no, he had said it was nothing –and stopped the quarrelling short. It had felt like a lie. There was no woman and there was no fucking, but incredibly enough, it had felt like he was lying through his teeth.

“Aazrak?”

Azraq startled out of his thoughts. Sie had finally come to their previously arranged meeting place and was looking at him anxiously. They were in the waiting area of a little tea shop in the middle of the heart of Warf.

“Azraq,” he corrected easily, as he had been doing all the preceding days.

“I thought you weren’t going to come,” Sie admitted, looking shy.

“You were the one who was late.”

“My duties kept me a little bit fuller than I had expected today,”

Azraq narrowed his eyes, “Your prince?”

Sie snorted. “He is not mine,”

“But he was your duty.” Azraq stated firmly, feeling unusually displeased. Then again, Warf’s royal family had always been a source of bitterness to him. It may have been just that.

“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you waiting,” Sie bit his lower lip (it looked an enticing sort of red). The skin of his face was lightly dusted in pink, from rushing towards here in Warf’s usual and unforgiving cold, probably. “I really wanted to come and see you.”

“You see me every day,”

Sie smiled, “Yes, but this is a first, isn’t it?”

Yes. It was indeed the first time they had acceded to meet outside of the palace –Sie had said he wanted to show him his favorite shop, and Azraq had complied.

“Are you sure no one will say a word about you being here?”

Sie nodded. “They won’t say and they won’t ask.”

“Well then,”

They entered quickly, and were greeted by two maids dressed in soft pink. The maids smiled gently at them, their hands were delicate and milky pale as they poured tea for them, once in their private seats.

Azraq noticed the difficult palate of colors swirling on the porcelain tea pot, plus the challenging ceremony of the two women to mix the tea leaves, in the colorful arranged tea cups.

“Bring me tartlets too,” Sie asked at the bowed women in front of him.

“They don’t look you in the eye,” Azraq murmured casually.

“My duty as you called him often comes here with me,” Sie said, blowing off steam from his cup. “At least half of the maids of this place have been through his hands –they know what I am to him too and yet they indulge him… It may be that the why of your question.”

“You are lying.”

“It is a truth.”

“Not all of it,” Azraq stated bluntly.

Sie’s manner turned pleased. “No, not all of it.”

The women returned then, with the pastries making their conversation stop. Azraq stared at the big feast in front of his eyes, an assortment of sweets carefully arranged in little plates, decorated with cream and ripe fruit.

Sie bit one of the little desserts –and Azraq couldn’t help but notice as red jelly spilled to his lips and tainted his pale fingers.

“You should eat too,” Sie said after licking his lips and his fingers clean. He did this naturally and quietly and not as a mean to entice, Azraq understood as much and yet…

Azraq had never noticed a man in that way before, not even Zanbaq who was said to be beautiful.

_‘Is it a woman? You are going there to fuck a woman?’_

It had been a while since he had thought on that kind of diversion. Maybe, it was high time for him to oblige.

“I am leaving early today,”

Wide startled red eyes stared at him, turning just a shade dimmer. “Why?”

Azraq thought carefully about his answer, and then sighed –saying to Sie he wanted to find a whore-house was strangely enough, difficult. It wasn’t something that he indulged in a lot, but it was a common practice between his soldiers (any man did it, in fact) and he had had to learn to blend as any other soldier, to fit in, to be accepted as the leader of the army at first. Hazan had welcomed him with open arms back then; he had a reputation that preceded him after all and ironically enough every time he went, he felt perversely more at home than in the palace.

“You don’t need to know,” Azraq answered, finally tasting one of the tartlets, it tasted rich, heavy with a bitter sweetness. He knew he wouldn’t even eat half of it.

“Sometimes I wish you weren’t a freed man,”

Azraq put down his own steaming cup of tea. “It still tastes like shit.”

“If you were still a slave,” Sie kept on talking ahead, not a doubt in his eyes or his tone. “I would buy you.”

“Really?” Azraq asked, not even feeling offended by how prideful and easily his companion talked about buying slaves, about buying him. It just was, it seemed Sie was used to have what he wanted no matter the cost and knew no better. “And how would you explain to your prince, having a male slave?”

Sie stared down at his empty cup of tea, “I would cover your face, an exotic slave of the desert lands only allowed to my eyes.” He said with a faint smile, knowing the improbability of his wish. “I would find a way,”

“Too bad then, I have been free from quite the time now,”

Sie looked up at him, with clear red eyes and Azraq thought of the red stones of Karlann, glittering red jewels that shined with light.

“Are you angry?” Sie asked apologetic.

“No.” Azraq said and it was a truth. “You Warf people are a greedy lot,”

Sie licked the remaining sweetness from his lower lip, and Azraq followed the movement with his eyes.

“I just don’t want you to go,” Sie said softly, grabbing Azraq’s hand between his own.

Azraq traced the paleness of the fingers grabbing his own with his eyes with sort of trance.

“It would be nice,” Sie said finally, freeing Azraq’s fingers.

In the end, he did not leave early –delayed more than usual in fact, and against his better judgement. Sie smiled sadly at seeing him go, but asked the same thing as every time, “Are you coming tomorrow?”

This time was one of the ones where he didn’t answer.

\---

It was different from all the (limited) experience Azraq had had before. He thought it was real, but then again he thought it really wasn’t. He wasn’t sure but, it seemed unimportant anyway.

Azraq knew they were in his tent, he was almost certain –but at the same time, the place looked foreign to him, soft cushions in a makeshift mattress, all of them white adorned the floor of it –the cushions felt soft on his back, and that’s when he noticed his was laying there naked, looking up with a little bit of awe and dread at the person standing in front of him.

Sie stood at his feet, dressed in red, in Karlann’s robes (nothing like the clothes he used day to day); half of the gown fell off his pale shoulders, exposing pale skin –while the lower half parted high enough to reveal his bare legs.

Sie knelt and crawled sinuously towards him, until he was perched on his lap, the robe falling off from him even more, barely held together by a thin sash.

Azraq’s breath hitched, at the same time his wary eyes looked at the other man. Sie was beautiful, but he had known that already –the white of his hair like fresh powdered snow, the red of his eyes that glittered like jewels in mid-day, his lithe body with soft angles and the fairness of his skin, untainted. Pink lips and flushed cheeks, an air of naivety that spoke of a sheltered life, inner sweetness, and that stupid Warf pride that followed him like a shadow.

Azraq wanted him, but at the same he recoiled at the notion. He had never wanted anyone before, nor male or female. Sex he knew, and the sparse times he had had it, his companions had been pleasant enough, pretty, he supposed but he hadn’t really, wanted them, not like this. Azraq coldly admitted now, he had had sex because he was expected to, not because he really desired it, but now…

It was different.

Sie didn’t say a word, but he lowered his mouth to Azraq’s lips. The touch was soft and Azraq fought to not yield to it. It was a lost battle.

Azraq closed his eyes.

A careful hand was placed in his face, caressing his cheek, making him open his eyes again. Sie looked at him as if he wanted to devour him, ‘look at me,’ he seemed to say with his shining red eyes, ‘look at the person who has reduced you to this,’

(Just an animal full of lust. Something that you hate.)

Azraq couldn’t breathe, he wanted to struggle.

Sie didn’t give him time to try much, however. Soon enough, he held Azraq’s throbbing cock between his hands, and guided it towards his entrance. Sie impaled himself on Azraq, throwing his head back in mindless pleasure. It was hot inside him, wet and maddening.

Azraq didn’t do much than just stare and bit his lip to keep from screaming.

Sie kept his merciless rhythm, taking what he wanted and doing as he pleased –his legs trembled but held him up and down as he impaled himself over Azraq again and again and again; his fair skin rosy from exertion (pink nipples hardened), glazed red eyes lost in pleasure, and his robes opened but still over him .

Azraq didn’t touch him, didn’t know why he didn’t –felt his cock being constricted with every movement, and his heart burning.

Sie shifted, red eyes widening at the sensation and mouth parting in a silent scream, his lips shining with saliva. He was leaking all over Azraq, hot and throbbing.

Sie lifted up his weight and descended again, searching for that previous spot that had made him drool –and he found it, once he did he kept the angle as he cried out, body arched in perfect synchrony. Sie’s length angry and red spluttered at this, and he tightened, as Azraq choked a gasp.

Azraq woke after that, his breathing uneven and with a mild head ache. He was in his tent in the camp, it was late morning and he had overslept. Hadid (and by proxy Zanbaq) were nowhere in sight and he was thankful for that seeing as he had made a mess on himself. He wasn’t used to this kind of dreams, and it distressed him greatly.

Azraq didn’t even want to think, why it was that he had it. He was well past the time of their usual meeting time, and this time he wasn’t really amicably at the idea of going.

\---

Zanbaq spoke hushed-like as he got ready to leave. “You are leaving the camp at night now, as well?”

[Yes. No. Stop Me. If it has to be like this, you would be perfect instead. I apologize. This will give you pain. I don’t understand. I don’t want to go. Make it stop.]

“Habibtaa?” Zanbaq asked and to Azraq’s horror, he looked at the verge of tears.

Azraq had only seen him cry once before. It had been one of the worst days of their lives. He didn’t want to see him cry now, or ever to be sincere.

The campground was silent, some men doing guard and some others resting. Azraq had hoped no one would notice if he were to leave unannounced, but he had not thought about his friend. Maybe that was the problem with him lately, his lack of thinking.

It just was he hadn’t gone to Wafr in the end. He had refused to go since waking of that dream earlier in the day.

Azraq had remained in the camp with the men, and with Hadid who was now peacefully asleep, after he had told him a bed time story.

But it was need, an itch under his skin and he had fought it, he had fought with all of his forces every passing minute… but he was tired now.

[I want to see him.]

“Are you going?” Zanbaq repeated again, green eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Yes,”

“I see you, you know?” Zanbaq said pained, crossing his arms defensively over himself. “You are different, have been different since we came here. Wherever is that where you go, you never truly leave, even when you are here in the camp, your gaze looks distant.”

Azraq shook his head. “You know nothing about-”

“Keep lying to me Warlord, but is it really wise to lie to yourself?”

Azraq looked away, his heart heavy. “I have to go.”

Zanbaq didn’t answer anything to that, he didn’t expect him to.

\---

‘Don’t come at night.’ Sie had said and yet here he was. The room was dark, it was close to midnight and thanks to this he was able to blend with the shadows.

Azraq had come, in spite of Zanbaq’s hurt and his own refusal to see the white haired man again so soon. Perhaps he expected a scandal, refusal, to make Sie’s prince notice…

To force Sie’s hand, to make him—

“I thought you weren’t going to come,”

Dark blue eyes shifted towards the source of the voice. Sie was sitting on the bed, soft linen (white) pants and a long sleeveless (white) robe clasped from the neck to his waist. He looked different as how Azraq had dreamt him. That Sie from his dream had been dressed in red, like fire, burning and consuming.

“You said to not come at night,”

Sie shrugged, glittering red eyes alight with mischief in the darkness. “I hoped you would.”

“What about your prince?”

“My duty went away after promising me I was his only one. He must be busy under one of my maids’ skirts, he won’t notice.” This Sie said curtly, obviously injured with his own admission. Sie cared about the prince, or more accurately… he loved him.

“You should pay him in kind,” Azraq said, throat dry –not daring to move forward towards the other, and not knowing the why of his provocation. Or maybe he did but, didn’t want to accept it.

Sie looked at him startled, both of his hands fisting on his clothes, his fingers pale from the tight hold. “I have never even thought about it,”

“I’m leaving in two days,”

Sie opened his mouth, closed it again –words seemed to had left him.

“I don’t think I can keep coming to visit you for this two remaining days, and after that I’ll be gone. I just came to say goodbye.”

This was the wisest solution, was it not?

To cut this from its roots, to let it dry and whiter; Azraq planned to burn Warf to ashes and that had not changed, he had a kingdom to rule, and Hadid to protect –even Zanbaq was a big part of this decision. He could not afford this kind of distraction, what he could offer was a forgiveness paper: Sie would not be sold or taken to rape, nor would he be killed. He would be free. It was the best he could do for the both of them.

“Where?” Sie asked faintly, his previous glittering eyes now looked dull with sadness.

“Far away from here, the desert lands,” Azraq shook his head. “It’s not important,”

“Can’t you stay? I can make it so that you get a steady job within the palace, I can—”

Azraq interrupted him at that. “No, I can’t.”

“There’s but some hours until dawn, surely these remaining hours you can stay?” Sie probed hopeful, standing up from his bed.

“To what end?” Azraq asked brusque. He had stilled enough already this whole week. He wanted this to be over. He was still fighting with himself on this matter, it seemed. He detested such a thing.

“Because it would be the sensible thing to do, you came all the way here after all,” Sie pleaded softly as if taming a wild animal, walking towards him in slow steps.

Blue eyes wavered. He had come here to say goodbye and that was indeed what he was going to do –one way or another…

“That’s not enough reason.” Azraq started but was cut off by a hand of his chest.

Sie was now in front of him, his pale hand splayed wide over Azraq’s beating heart. “Then me wishing for you to stay, must be a heavily enough reason,” he whispered.

Azraq looked at him, Sie was illuminated by moonlighting. It was a sight to behold, and Azraq couldn't help but remember the old tales of Karlann about the north people and its bewitching enchants.

"I wish for you to remain here with me," Sie said frowning, demanding. It was a word of order, this person probably felt entitled to have anything within the five kingdoms as his right. "That has to be sufficient."

[Prideful, pampered, infuriating man.]

"Is it?" Sie asked quietly (wide amethyst eyes shining with a flicker if hope) as his hand, the one on his heart grabbed a fistful of Azraq's clothes.

[Naive, sweet, softhearted man.]

"That may depend," Azraq answered, in a yearning breath.

"On what?"

"On you," he finally said, knowing that the fight with himself was over and once again he had lost. He crossed the distance between them and brought Sie close (the soft fabric of Sie's night clothes on his hands) he kissed him before he could over think it. The touch was butterfly-like, he pressed his lips and was not really surprised to find Sie unresponsive -as he went to draw away (stung) however, the other man opened his mouth and kissed clumsily back.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yesterday I reached a year of having been posting this story -thank you to the ones who have been with me since the beginning, for having the patience to follow this story since then! 
> 
> And of course, thank you to the new readers too. 
> 
> *As for the chapter, I think I only want say... How's that saying of playing with fire, haha...


	15. War I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is NOT a flashback (is happening in real time).  
> Not betaed yet.

Kalte didn’t think much about apologizing –when you were king, you forgot about such things. If he were another person, another kind of man, a better one, then maybe he would admit he owed excuses and regrets to a lot of people; starting by the women he had fucked and then thrown away as if they were nothing, followed by his servants to whom even in his most good days he wasn’t very nice to, or Vesna to whom maybe Kalte knew he should have beg for forgiveness for years to start compensating all the damage he had been causing him.

Kalte would be in debt to Warf’s people as well, who would no doubt suffer from the upcoming War with Karlann –but more than that his biggest apology would go, without hesitation, to his former Orchide. Kalte knew he owed a lot of apologies to the former Orchide. Apologies he wouldn’t ever been able to give.

Sie was a sore topic to him. Most days Sie was an ache that screamed to be healed. It hurt, it scalded, and it itched. It was marked by a thousand of ifs or what could have beens.

If Kalte had paid more attention to him; if he had stopped whoring with the women who so easily parted their skirts and blouses to him; if he had been wiser, older; if he had tried to love him more like Sie loved him…

If, if, if…

“You should knock,” Primel said, with a small smile on her lips.

Kalte knew she was enamored with the idea of Vesna and him. A mysterious princess marrying a king of a foreign land -It was painfully obvious, Primel hoped to run with same luck one day.

Kalte nodded with his back straight. It was true; he had come here with the intention to apologize. He didn’t feel it necessary, but Primel insisted, and Vesna’s brother was scheduled to arrive today, if anything it would be convenient.

Kalte knocked on Vesna’s music room door, but didn’t get an answer. Vesna had shut himself inside there since the Ilha incident and what followed afterwards. It had been two weeks already.

“I will bring the key if you push me,” he warned, at what the melody that had been sounding all the while stopped.

“I don’t want to see you,”

Primel frowned.

This would be a little bit difficult, he supposed. “Primel, go to your tutor,”

Primel looked at him, the frown getting deeper. “Why?”

“Because I need to speak with Vesna alone,” he replied patiently.

Primel looked down, chewing her lip in consideration –but after a moment she gave it up and nodded her understanding. “I will come to visit later,” she promised.

Kalte watched her go, and turned once again at the door. “Your brother is coming today at mid-afternoon,”

It was all the motivation he needed. Vesna opened the door after that. “You are lying.”

“He demands war,” Kalte said as reply. “He hopes to obtain Karlann’s wealth. He is tired of waiting, with or without marriage; we will be attacking in two days.”

“My brother cares for me,” Vesna trembled in anger. “He would never,”

Kalte crossed his arms. “He used you as a link, you are here and that means we are allies, that means I get his army and he gets gold and jewels in return. I wrote a letter to him, fearing his distaste after what happened in Ilha, turns out he didn’t knew, nor cared we were not married,”

Vesnas fingers clenched.

“He said as long as you were here and alive, that was enough proof to our alliance. The marriage can happen after we get Karlann slaved to us,”

"Karlann, only ever Karlann, is it not?" Vesna spat with distaste. "You only ever care for it, for what they took from you -but the truth is, that man you lost, he is still dead and no matter what you do, you won't bring him back."

Kalte slapped him then, cold with fury and blind with guilt. Sie had been his, his to dedicate his life to, his to love and his to protect -and, and he had failed. Kalte had failed him.

"You don't know what is like,"

Some nights, Kalte thought he heard Sie scream as Karlann's bandits took him away, even if no one had noticed when it was that he was taken; even if Sie had only vanished from the palace one day to never come back.

Did Sie hurt as they killed him? Had it been fast? Slow? Had his Orchide cried? Begged? Been tortured? Raped?

The clothes they had found at the border had been stained with blood. So much blood.

How awful had it been for his childhood friend and better half?

"He is dead," Vesna repeated with ill-concealed glee, placing a hand on his throbing cheek. Purple eyes shining with joy. "He is dead no matter what you do to me."

"I detest you."

"You will still have to marry me,"

That was unfortunately something Kalte knew, he couldn't avoid. Even if Vesna's brother relented now, after the war there wouldn't be a reason enough not to. Kalte would have to make this hateful man his Orchide.

 ---

Kalte stood and waited for King’s Osen Court to stop entering his palace, with the King of Solnce himself at the end of the formal parade. Curiously enough he didn’t know what impression to make of Vesna’s older brother; Kalte had never met him in person before this –their previous negotiations had been through letters and King’s Osen personal adviser. Vesna had been given as a sign of goodwill between both kingdoms, and the one to bring him to Warf had been that same man, the adviser without Osen ever showing up. Rumor said, Osen was a man of peculiar habits and withdrawn temper; a King who never ventured out of his palace.

“King Kalte,” the advisor said, nodding, as Osen trailed behind him without a word or a glance.

Kalte didn’t dignify an answer to the advisor but was ready to speak with Solnce’s King when he was interrupted abruptly.

“Brother!” Vesna said, stumbling from the door in his haste to reach Osen.

Osen straightened then, and his guarded expressionless face faltered; purple eyes a shade lighter than Vesna’s going troubled.

“Brother,” Vesna repeated raw with emotion, hugging the other tightly, “I thought, I thought I would never see you again.”

Osen relaxed, sighing. “Vesna, you are no longer a child,”

“I don’t care,”

“Very well, what do you wish?”

Kalte looked at them and waited patiently for a chance to speak. They were remarkable similar with fair skin, lithe complexion, black hair and undeniably beauty -the only deference was the King being two years older than Vesna.

"Brother, I want to be with you as long as you remain here," Vesna pleaded, his hands clamping on the King's clothes.

"I am afraid that won't happen my price," the adviser interjected.

"But brother I--"

"You won't distress his majesty,"

Osen shook his head, "Enough of that,"

"Brother?"

"Vesna will stay with me," Osen said. "Do as you like, you little brat." 

“But—”

“Advisor,” Osen cut, “As for you and the rest of the Court, I’m sure it would be better if you went to rest.”

“Your majesty,” Kalte said at least, after Osen had finished ordering his court to go set themselves comfortably, and his advisor with them.

“Ah yes, King Kalte,” Osen nodded, finding a sitting bench on the throne room (Vesna close with him).

“I trust you had a nice trip from Solnce to Warf,”

“Spare me the small talk,” Osen offered dryly.

“Well,” Kalte supposed, it would be good to be frank. “Our men are at Karlann’s borders, waiting for yours and your rations of food,”

“My gold as well,”

Kalte bit his own cheek to stop from answering to that, it stung, but it helped him to focus his misplaced anger –Warf’s pride would not help him here.

“Your majesty has been kind,”

“No, not at all,” Osen touched Vesna’s hand, clamping their fingers together. “I have given Warf a lot; I expect to get just the same,”

“You have my word.”

“Then, it should be matter of hours for my army to reach yours.”

“I’ll ride to the camp by night, I’ll reach it in a week but the attack would have started by then.” Kalte was certain, it would end in victory.

“I have no intention of joining you, of course,”

Kalte had predicted as much; this was no Osen’s war but Kalte’s to fight. “I wouldn’t ask that of you,”

“If you were to fail, we would take our army, supplies, and gold back but Vesna would remain. Half of your kingdom would be mine in compensation for Solnce’s loses.” Which was to say Vesna was staying as a guaranty.

“I agree to your terms,”

“May your campaign reign over Karlann and your sword be just.”

“Thank you.”

Osen nodded. “Vesna will remain with me as many days as I stay here,”

“Of course,”

“Have a goodnight, King Kalte.”

\---

The invasion happened as Kalte had predicted; even on both sides so far. His main General, showed up to give him the news about how things were turning; she was a good strategist and never feared to speak her mind.

"We are not losing but we are not wining, your majesty," she looked at him with sincerity. "Karlann has been withholding their forces, they are defending well from the attack but they are not really making damage to us,"

Kalte paused to contemplate this new information. "Could they be getting ready to march to our Capital?"

The woman shifted and pondered this. "It could very well be, your majesty,"

"What would they gain so important from invading Warf right now instead of protecting their own land?" Kalte asked, knowing the answer beforehand.

The woman's eyes glinted dangerously. "Slaves,"

Kalte closed his eyes. "How much?"

"I've heard its high profit, almost a hundred of gold coins per slave," she spat looking ill. "I've heard they duplicate or triplicate the gold if the slave is from Warf,"

Kalte nodded. "Our main concern is reach their palace and take it as ours, as for the royal family we may deal with that later,"

"What about the slaves issue?"

"We will deal with it once the palace is ours," Kalte repeated.

There had been a time, once, many years ago where Kalte had promised Sie more land to expand their precious Warf. They had been kids playing play pretend; they had been pirates and adventurers and wild riders -they had been anything but a king and a Orchide, but still it had seemed right, to say to Sie:

"I'll give you the world,"

It had been a silly promise and now, now Kalte didn't want to give the world to Sie as he had promised -now he wanted to burn the world for him.

"Your majesty," his General bowed getting ready to depart from his tent, but she wavered and looked at him for a while longer than necessary.

"Is there anything else?"

The woman sighed, slumped on herself. "I have also heard another kind of rumors,"

Kalte waited patiently for her to continue, he looked at the maps on his desk and nodded his permission for her to speak.

"Karlann is at brink of a civil war," she licked her lips. "But in any case that would be good news for us,"

Kalte looked steadily at her. "What are the bad ones?"

"Some people of Karlann are saying our war is a curse," she clenched her fist and cleared her throat. "Black magic brought by the king's courtesan."

Kalte frowned not understanding where this was going.

His general steeled herself as if ready to take a beating, her back straight. "Karlann's king took a male courtesan ten years ago from Warf. He is said to be a witch with red eyes and white hair,"

Kalte paled and felt the air draining from him. "Is this confirmed?"

Could it be?

But how?

The general frowned, shaking her head. "Only rumors and half whispers your majesty,"

How?

"Anything else?" Kalte asked carefully not daring to hope.

"No,"

"Keep looking into it," he ordered, dismissing her afterwards.

As he looked her leave, he noticed his hands trembled. It couldn't be possible, could it?

No it couldn't. It was only ghosts as always -coming to haunt him as a heavy as snow.

Kalte closed his eyes and thought of what he had lost so far. Things he wouldn't ever get back. If he could hope then it would be worth it, wouldn't it?

No, it was futile to hope, there were only ever ghosts

\---

Kalte awoke with the sound of light footsteps entering his tent; he blinked his blurry eyes and looked at the tent’s ceiling –his mouth felt dry, and his skin felt hot. He had been having a nightmare, always buried in the sand, always so much of it.

“Your majesty,” the person who had interrupted his pitiful sleep spoke. It was a woman, one of the maids brought from the palace to offer service to him. “Is time from you to eat.”

Kalte sat, nodded and exhaled shakily.

“I can only prepare your bath,” the woman said softly. “Or help you with ah, any other need.”

Kalte looked at her then; he couldn’t remember if he had ever fucked her before but it did sound appealing right now –a warm body to forget the screams, the blood, Sie’s lifeless eyes and the sand, the fucking sand that kept piling up over him, always, always trying to choke him.

“Do you have a lover?” Kalte asked; he wasn’t against fucking married women when they were nobles, but a soldier’s wife –that was another matter. He wouldn’t fuck one of his soldier’s wives, what little of what remained of his honor wouldn’t allow it.

The woman seemed to think about it for a minute. “Well, I do sometimes,”

Which meant, she was off-limits to him then. Unfortunate.

“But she fucks anything that moves, so I’m not loyal either,” the woman said unhappily, obviously bothered with the subject. “Your General is a fickle soul, your majesty.”

Kalte stopped at the admission and really looked at the woman again. She was short, lean, of fair skin and wild red hair. She seemed like trouble and Kalte had to smile for a brief second, he would never fuck with his best strategist’s lover but thinking about the stoic woman who had all his trust being with this curious maid, made him nostalgic.

Kalte thought it was noticeable, at least on this one. She was in love and obviously jealous of his General’s affairs.

“You should stop fucking different people,” Kalte said, a distant look on his eyes. “Talk to her, and made her understand your feelings. Don’t take anything for granted.”

“Your majesty?”

Kalte shook his head. “Bring me the breakfast and after that you are free to go.”

The maid nodded, didn’t say anything else.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter. Thank you for Reading and more than that, for commenting.


	16. War II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS NOT A FLASHBACK. IT'S HAPPENING IN REAL TIME.

Hadid stared at the long sinuous body resting uncomfortably in the little cell; the man’s clothes were supposed to be a translucent white but now they were dirty, and shred –it was obvious the captive had fought all the way until the guards had thrown him here.

“I know you are awake,” Hadid offered patiently; he had never been as good as Sie or his brother had always made him thought he was –he knew this now, seeing his former mentor so helpless before him and feeling nothing but dark, twisting, pleasure.

“Where were you?” Zanbaq spat roughly, not moving from his curling spot on the floor.

“Around,”

“Where the fuck were you?” Zanbaq mumbled harshly, taking great gulps of air, he was having trouble to breath.

“You know where,” Hadid answered curtly. “You just didn’t want to believe it.”

“I raised you better than that, you fucker.”

“Azraq is not here,” Hadid carried on, “I know where he is being held, I know when the execution will be and I know how to save him.”

Zanbaq stilled. Hadid suspected they both knew where this was going.

“Your price?”

“What do you think?” Hadid’s voice went low; he had given everything away –even his own sanity- just for this.

“What all the men I have come across have always wanted the same shit from me.” Zanabq answered tonelessly.

Hadid gripped the bars of the cell and closed his eyes; he wanted to answer that no, he wasn’t at all like all the others. He wanted to say that it wasn’t just lust, that his feelings ran deeper than that.

‘I am better, I will cherish you, I always have, don’t you see?’ Hadid wanted to scream this but the words never came out of his mouth. He wasn’t self-deluded enough. In the end maybe he really was just like all the others.

“You know that’s what bound me so hard to your brother in the first place,” Zanbaq said, he sounded flippant –detached in a very scornful way. “When you work in a whore-house in Hazan there’s not much innocence to be had, and yet I was an innocent fucker, I never thought the kind woman who ruled the house I worked as an errand boy would sell me after promising my dying mother she wouldn’t ever do it.”

“Zanbaq--”

Zanbaq shook his head –his long hair was loose. “The Warf king asked for it. Azraq had disobeyed him in one of the works he had been sent to do, and so it was a lesson. A punishment. I was fourteen, had never fucked anyone before, it lasted two hours and there were four of them.”

Hadid inhaled sharply, feeling sick at his own person. What made him better than those men?

“After it was done I was left lying there unconscious, naked, full of cum and blood.” Zanbaq shrugged. “Azraq found me like that, it took him a week to wake me up.”

“What do you want from me?”

Zanbaq got up from the floor, and walked towards the bars of the cell. “Just don’t kill him or hurt him and I will do anything you want.”

Hadid swallowed. It was a way to finally have him, wasn’t it? “Why?” He asked, even knowing the obvious answer.

Zanabq lowered his eyes. “Azraq promised me forever and I did the same.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Zanbaq looked at him then, green eyes going taunting. “Because I have loved him since we were brats,” he licked his lips. “You can make me fuck you but you can’t make me love you, silly child.”

Hadid felt the words as if they were a physical blow; he clenched his fingers, controlled his pounding heart, and tried to not crumble in front of the other man. “Very well,” he nodded. “I do intend to fuck you but not just for a night, remember that.” He paused. “I will be your forever.”

“Becoming a whore?” Zanbaq tilted his head; there was only mockery and cruelty in his eyes. “You think that will hurt me?”

“A queen,” Hadid answered tonelessly, eyes going blank. “I am not my brother, I intend to wed you at the end of this.”

Zanbaq’s eyes went wide at that.

“There won’t be a forever with him because you will be stuck with me, or you can let him die.”

Zanbaq crossed his arms in front of him, his voice a lecturing one. “Lesson one: you make a win-win situation for yourself and if possible give a positive outcome to the other party involved, but it’s not necessary. Don’t hesitate or show weakness when you bargain or you will lose the upper-hand.”

Hadid didn’t answer anything to that.

Zanabaq nodded to himself, “You learned well,”

There was a silence after that until Hadid spoke again, “So how does it feel? To have created a monster?”

Zanbaq remained quiet until Hadid turned to go.

“You really aren’t one,”

Hadid left after that.

\---

The cell where they had put his brother was different than the one Zanbaq was being held in. Azraq’s cell was spacious and with minimum comfort, but then again, Hadid had ordered for this to be the case.

Azraq was sitting in the little bed at the far end of the room; he didn’t look any different than he always did and Hadid swallowed hard, feeling like a child again.

“Leave us,” he ordered the two guards posted on the outside of the cell.

The men did as they were told, and soon enough he was alone with his brother.

Hadid opened the door to the cell with shaking hands.

“What did Zanbaq said?” Azraq inquired from his position on the bed.

Hadid sighed, slumping on himself. “He hates me,”

“He doesn’t,” Azraq shifted, making room for Hadid to sit at his side. “He will come around, or you can just tell him the truth, that it was my orders you were following when all this ends.”

It was true, all along Hadid had only been following Azraq’s instructions –his conferences with the Council and the far- away tribes to cause a civil war and put the current king on a cell had been all done by his brother’s orders. Azraq had said if they didn’t do it that way, the Coucil and the tribes would revel anyway and put some of their own on the throne; he had said it was only matter of time.

Hadid had been plotting this betrayal with them since the beginning of the year, reporting everything he heard back to Azraq. Sectors of Karlann weren’t happy with the things were going, or the notion of their ruler wanting to take a foreigner as Malika. It had only gotten worse when Azraq had taken a defensive posture in the current war. They had accused their king of madness and weakness –they could make finally Warf suffer and bleed, ride their streets taking slaves to sell to high price at the pleasure fraction as payback for Warf’s trying to take their homeland, and yet Azraq had refused to take more than a cautious stance.

A week after their return from Ilha and finally the complot had exploded; all of Azraq’s people had been taken down, his advisors and supporters, the side of military who had refused to join the new ruler, between them Zanbaq –some of them kept in cells waiting execution, some sold to keep making gold to sustain the expenses of a civil war and a war with Warf.

Azraq had known it was bound to happen one way or another that’s why he had freed Sie before coming back to Karlann; Hadid had known what the Council had planned to do with Sie (it made him sick) and had agreed it was the best choice for them.

“I will be King when all this ends,” Hadid murmured. “Where are you going to go?”

“Maybe Hazan,” Azraq shrugged. “I can live there in the shadows; no one will be able to tell it’s me.”

“What about Zanbaq?” Hadid asked, tensing.

What he had told Zanbaq, what he had asked of him –that hadn’t been his brother’s orders, that had only been him acting according his best interests. Hadid had lied and manipulated way too long to let a chance like this pass him by; he wouldn’t ever hurt his beloved brother but Zanabq didn’t need to know that.

At the end Azraq had told him he was just going to disappear, live a quiet life in the slums of Hazan, work or do something else… travel maybe?

Azraq had said it was about freedom, about feeling free for the first time –as he had been chained Hazan as a slave first and then as a king to Karlann by his own word to protect Hadid until he was of age. But he had never said anything about taking Zanbaq with him, and if he did Hadid wasn’t sure he would comply with his brother’s decision easily.

“Zanabq can do what he pleases,” Azraq told him. “He can stay with you if that’s his wish.”

It wasn’t, but his brother didn’t need to know that.

“I think it will only take a week more,” Hadid sighed. Just a week more to make Karlann accept a new king; after that Hadid would put an end to Warf and its invasion and would make a new Council, although he had been entertaining the notion of not taking one at all. He would marry and take a first female courtesan to have children with her, to make a linage and have a successor. At the end of this all, Hadid would be king and he would be on his own –not his brother at his side anymore telling him what to do, not Sie dotting over him either. Not even Zanbaq (who would hate him) who would without doubt stay for Azraq’s sake, would ease away the loneliness.

The path to become a King was an isolated one, it seemed.

Azraq grabbed him in a half way hug. “You will be a great King.”

Hadid closed his eyes, leaning completely on his older brother who was going to leave him all alone soon, just like his father had done when he was little.

“Will you look for Sie?” Hadid asked curious.

Azraq didn’t answer anything for a while, before shifting and letting go of him. “I don’t think he wants to see me, Hadid.”

Hadid looked at his brother with anger. “You never believed in him.”

Azraq snorted. “It’s not about believing. He’s free of a man who he let fuck him for ten years for a contract. What do you think he would do if I showed up in front of him again?”

“Kiss you?”

Azraq shook his head. “Any sane person would run. There can be nothing more valuable for a slave than freedom Hadid, always remember that.”

“You were born as a slave, he wasn’t. It’s different.”

“Is actually worse.”

“I know he was a highborn of Warf or something but that was ten years ago. Azraq, I think he loves you,” Hadid thought his brother was being difficult on purpose,“ like a petulant child. The both of them would be free and equal now. Hadid was sure Sie loved his brother, they were just stubborn fuckers.

“He has always loved someone else,”

Hadid lowered his eyes, he knew how that felt. “You can fight to make him love you,” Hadid said, not knowing if he was telling this to his brother or to himself.

“If he couldn’t love me in ten years, I highly doubt he will now,”

“Then you will take a wife? Have children?”

“I don’t think that kind of life is for me,” Azraq acknowledged gently, “but who knows, maybe in some years I will.” This last part both of them knew was a lie to keep Hadid happy.

“I wish you happiness in you new life.”

Azraq nodded. “I wish you many heirs, and happiness too."

It was only a matter of time now -sand slipping away and the clock running down.

\--- 

“What will you do, then?” Hadid asked to his mentor. It had only been a day but they were running out of time, he needed a queen; he couldn’t save all of Azraq’s old people like this, and the Council was breathing on the back of his neck with every step he took. Hadid couldn’t dissolve them yet, not until he was a consolidated king.

Zanbaq was sitting this time, his back against the cold wall of the cell. “What do you think?”

Hadid narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have time for your games, I just need an answer.”

“Yes.” Zanbaq said quietly. “But you knew that already,”

Hadid had hoped as much; he closed his eyes in relief. “I will take you out of this cell tonight and you will pledge loyalty to me in front of the council.”

Zanbaq studied him at that; he seemed to be thinking about something very hard. “How will you make them accept me as the Malika?”

“You were born in Karlann,” Hadid would make them one way or another. “They may dislike you but you have Karlann blood in your veins, that’s enough for now.”

“And then what?”

“Then you will come with me and will remain with me. You won’t be nothing more than the Malika, the army won’t answer to you any longer.”

“I don’t know shit about being a queen,” Zanbaq warned. “I won’t change, I hope you know this.”

Hadid shrugged. “I don’t give a shit if you are not proper.”

Zanbaq smiled sharply. “Of course not, you just want to fuck me legally, and everything else can go to hell.”

“Is a way to put it.”

“Very well, you really do intent to do this.” Zanbaq spat jeering. “Why wait until tonight after the farce? You should just enter here and fuck me against the wall, isn’t that what you want?”

Hadid didn’t rise to the taunting.

“Or maybe you don’t know how, boy?” Zanbaq smirked. “I can teach you, as I taught you everything else you know.”

“I won’t fuck you here to make a point.”

“Do you know how to?”

“You would be surprised.” 

“Really?” Zanbaq asked, getting up and walking towards him –his body getting plastered to the bars. Hadid looked at his almost bare chest, at a rosy nipple and… wanted. “You could make me shut up in that way, you know.”

“I doubt you would ever.”

“I do get vocal when the one doing the fucking is good enough,” Zanbaq purred and Hadid wondered how many men those had been. When he had been little and went with Zanbaq in his trips, he had never noticed when Zanbaq scurried away to fuck, no Zanbaq had been careful enough then –Hadid had only noticed when he had grew up and Zanbaq had thought Hadid could understand what was happening, then it had been fair game.

Zanbaq had a preference for tall, strong and tanned men –usually dark-haired- all of them the same; at first Hadid hadn’t understood why, but he did get what it was Zanbaq did with them the nights he didn’t return to their usual room, and it had bothered him. It was only he didn’t knew why, until one unfortunate night when Hadid had out of bad luck wandered outside the inn they had been staying and had saw his tutor getting fucked against the wall.

Zanabq hadn’t noticed him there –as he had hurriedly scrambled to hide, not knowing why he had stayed to see the whole scene when he should just had turned and go, as he had done once when his brother and Sie had been doing something similar in the garden.

Hadid had watched entranced and appalled all of it, as a dark haired man with similar build to his brother pounded into Zanbaq roughly, without a thought of pleasure for his partner. It looked like it hurt but Zanbaq didn’t seem to mind as he tried to find purchase in the wall behind him, moaning and stroking his hard cock. It had been over fast; they didn’t kiss or spoke afterwards.

Hadid had been fourteen and he hadn’t gone back to their room that night; he had been angry and aroused not knowing why. In the end that had been the first time he had had sex as well, as he had walked towards a tavern and they had let him in believing he was of age, thanks to his impressive height. He had drank until he had passed out and a pretty older woman had took him to her room in the back.

She had taught him there the only thing Zanbaq hadn’t ever taught him… how to fuck.

The next morning Zanbaq had screamed at him until his throat ached, had told him how dangerous it was for a prince to go alone outside –how he shouldn’t been drinking alone or at all, and how Zanbaq was responsible for him in front of his brother.

And right there everything had fit. His brother was the answer.

The man last night had resembled him, and Zanbaq didn’t give a shit about him, he only cared about what Azraq could say.

It had always been about Azraq.

“I know,” Hadid answered emotionlessly. “I was always there.”

Sie had been the only good thing about those confusing and painful days. Sie who had seen him struggle and had made his personal goal to make him smile, just like he had done when Hadid had been a child.

Zanbaq stopped with his intent of seduction then, and considered him closely. “Yes, you were.” He said with a weird tone of voice, Hadid wasn’t able to read the feeling behind Zanbaq’s voice or even understand him, but then again he had never been.

“I will come for you tonight.”

It was a promise and maybe it was also a mistake, but everything was already decided and Hadid could only move forward. It was time anyway.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we are halfway to the second book, that's actually good for me, and you, and everyone? Third book is the last one... So yeah. In terms of the whole story I would say we are in the middle, it will have around thirty chapters.
> 
> See you soon!


	17. Short Extra Story + A/N.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short Extra Story + A/N.  
> (A/S.)

Sie paused before the half open door. His majesty's study was always lighted up when he stayed working late, but this time the light was dim.

In the end he opted for entering anyway, but the King wasn't on his desk. Sie frowned, glancing around the darkness -until his eyes fell on a figure sitting on the floor.

Azraq was by one of the windows (sitting on the cold stone floor), he seemed asleep and he wasn't alone; over him was a lump, a lump covered with a blanket. It was a cold night in Karlann, colder than usual, and Sie thought it maybe had to do with the rain that had fallen earlier and that was starting again. A rare occurrence on itself, the rain.

As he approached, calm blue eyes snapped open.

Sie startled. "Your majesty?"

"It's a reflex," Azraq explained. "I'm able to sense when someone gets too close."

"I see,"

Sie knelt in front of the King, "Is a cold night to stay on the floor."

Azraq shook his head. "Hadid is afraid of thunder. He hates rain,"

"He can stay with me until the storm is over," Sie offered. "You should go rest,"

"Wouldn't be better to take us both to your room," Azraq asked, a trace of amusement on his voice. "Two for the price of one."

Sie smiled softly, "Yes, I'm very happy to have gotten such a great deal."

"You would do great in the 'dry heat' bazaar,"

"Why?"

Sie stared curious; he remembered reading that book, Ladina, the girl who had been granted three wishes in the 'dry heat' bazaar thanks to her sharp mind, and bargain skills -he had liked it of course, but in Warf it had been labeled as lower literature. Not worthy of attention. The place mentioned in the book too much like Karlann.

"They would probably give you the three wishes, without making you do a thing."

Sie's lips twitched up. "I'm hardly worth that much your majesty,"

"To me you are," Azraq stated simply, making Sie's breath hitch.

\---

It was midnight by the time someone called on Sie's door.

Sie got up from the bed; his majesty was still awake, reading quietly in one of the chairs. It was probably papers he had to sign.

"Um," Said a young maid. "Excuse my interruption, but lord Zanbaq has just arrived at the palace and, he wishes for the prince to be took to him."

Sie hesitated. Hadid was sleeping soundly already, blissfully oblivious to the storm still raging outside.

"It's alright," Azraq interjected. "You can take him to Zanbaq."

The maid nodded and hurried to pick the sleeping prince in her arms. She bowed at them once the task had been done.

"Was it really alright?" Sie asked still worried.

"Hadid loves him fiercely, when he's gone thanks to his traveling, Hadid misses him fiercely as well."   
Azraq said, finally putting his papers away; he remained sat on the chair, though. "Hadid will be happy to see him, and I'll be happy to have you all to myself."

Sie nodded, climbing the bed swiftly. "Any thing I should do for you, your majesty?" he asked slowly, his voice warm with invitation -he wasn't afraid to let his majesty know when he was in the mood to do this kind of things. Sie had learned sex with Azraq, he had learned to like it, to ask for it when he wanted it and surprisingly enough, to deny it when he wasn't in the spirits for it. Azraq had always been respectful of his wishes about this topic.

Sie felt heated with desire this night. Maybe because it was an unusual night, with the storm falling outside -or maybe it had been Azraq's words about what Sie was worth in his eyes. Sie still felt incredibly happy only remembering Azraq careful words.

Azraq regarded him carefully, his deep blue eyes going dark with want. "Would you like to pleasure yourself?"

Sie's breath caught, he licked his dry lips before answering a hushed. "Yes."

In Warf this kind of behavior would have been seen as shameless. A stain in the good traditions of family -and yet he had known many people who had indulged in worse pleasures, it was only they did it in secret, so nothing at all like Karlann that spoke about sex and its many practices in freedom.

Sie still remembered the first time he had seen, how really, and truly free, Karlann was in terms of the practice of sex. It had been pretty much after arriving to the palace for the first time, he had been out to see the gardens curious in spite of eeverything and with the sun already sinking down; and right there in the middle of the principal garden had been two men and a woman having sex with each other -there had been a number of people watching too, some slightly amused and some a little interested but none as scandalized as Sie who had flushed at the raw display: the woman totally nude with her legs spread apart while one of the men licked between her thighs, while the other fucked the one doing the licking, he still remembered how the the slap of flesh against flesh had sounded and how the men had grunted while the woman moaned.

Sie closed his eyes and opened his robes, wasting no more time -then proceeded to take his already hard lenght on his hand. He stroked his aching cock softly, various times, just teasing himself -not seeking to orgasm just yet.

"That's enough," Azraq ordered a little breathlessly.

Sie opened heavy lidded eyes at that, he stopped his hand and looked at the king. "Would you like to fuck me your majesty?"

"Yes." Azraq whispered with heavy need.

"Then come here," Sie said opening his arms and legs invitingly.

Azraq was quick to shed his clothes, and soon enough he was nude between Sie's legs. Sie crossed both arms behind the king's neck and brought him to kiss. The kiss was soft, unhurried and full of something as strong and electric as the storm outside. Alive. Sie felt drunk, and pliant -he arched his neck as Azraq kissed the pale column of his throat.

"Azraq," Sie said, he knew it was unusual of him to call his majesty by name -but in that moment he could not help it. "Azraq, I want you inside me." He pleaded, but Azraq merely kept kissing his skin, lapping at his nipples again and again. Sie twisted under him and cried out when Azraq's hand started a rhythm on his leaking shaft again.

Azraq bit hard on one of the little nubs while he tightened his hand around Sie, making him arch his back in mindless pleasure -then he proceeded to suck that same abused nipple again softly this time, to ease the sting off. Azraq stopped stroking Sie's shaft and brought his hand to touch the other rossy nipple.

It was sweet torture. Sie moaned helpless to do nothing but bear it. Azraq stayed there at his chest for a while, making his nipples sore with attention and his arousal increase.

It felt like an eternity but after a while Azraq started kissing him lower and lower, Sie was still hazy with need but he noticed the path Azraq's kisses were leading to, and just as he understood what was that was happening a velvety heat enveloped his shaft whole.

Sie threw his head back and yowled; he could count on both hands the times Azraq had done this for him. It was a disgrace for a king to do it by Karlann's law, but Azraq had done behind closed doors from time to time -and right now, his majesty looked as if the only thing he wanted was to drive Sie to madness with his talented mouth.

Sie trembed, unable to stop looking, and totally mesmerized by the sight of Azraq swallowing down his length, sucking from the head to the root of it again and again -he held Azraq's, soft, black hair in desperation, trying to pull him out of his task; Sie knew it wouldn't be much now until he came and he didn't want to make Azraq to drink his seed but his majesty insisted. Sie lasted seconds and then he was coming; Azraq drank all of it and still sucked delicately at the head, to have the last drops.

Sie panted after, totally spent.

"You are still aching,"

Azraq looked at him, and shrugged. "It will go away if I don't pay attention to it."

Sie looked at him, sometimes he got the distant impression Azraq wasn't as fond of sex as any other man of their age would be -it wasn't that he didn't enjoy it or that he didn't initiate it because he did most of the times, but there were times like today where he seemed reluctant to satisfy his need. "I still want you inside," Sie said gently, bringing a hand to caress Azraq's face, touching his shiny lips with careful fingers. "Or are you too tired?"

Azraq closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. "I love you." He said quietly.

Sie stared at him wide eyed. It had been four years since he had been living as Azraq's concubine, four years of leaving his life as Orchide behind, and he could admit to himself, that after he had stopped fighting with Azraq over everything (the first two years had been a constant war) he had learned to be happy. He was content with his life here in Karlann, somehow, and this was thanks to the king himself that made Sie feel safe, wanted, and yes loved. Even if it was the first time that Azraq said it, deep down Sie had already known.

Sie didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything, instead he switched their positions making Azraq stay under him. Sie kissed him carefully, with lips and tongue and worked at his opening with practiced fingers, and soon enough he was sinking down.

Azraq groaned with eyes half open and let Sie do as he pleased; he didn't try to control the cadence of Sie's hips and he didn't protest when Sie grabbed both of his hands making him totally helpless to whatever Sie wanted to do to him. Azraq didn't say anything else either.

Sie lifted himself up and then seated back down on Azraq's hardness twice and then the king tensed, spilling inside Sie.

They slept after. The rain still strong outside.

\---

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This little ficlet is a short story that did happen in terms of the story; if you are wondering, yes Azraq did voice his feelings to Sie but he is not a man of many words or 'a heart on my sleeve' kind, so in ten years he voiced his feelings three times, this one being one of them -while Sie never said anything about love.
> 
> As for the story, sometimes I wonder if people are still reading it? If there are people who would like to know how the story ends? Or if I should just give it up -because my writer block persists, plus sometimes I feel the story is not 'y'know' decent enough. I don't know but I have been reading lately, and those stories are so good, I feel like, 'uh I'm never writing again'.
> 
> So yeah, let me know if you want to know how it ends or if not well, maybe I will post a hiatus kind of thing -or in the worse case took it down?
> 
> (Also, let me know how well I do in sex scenes because I just write it, but like I don't know if people like it.)
> 
> I will let you know my decision, of course--


	18. War III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is not a FLASHBACK. Is happening in real time.

Warf hadn’t changed much, just as cold as always, surrounded by snowy mountains and glazed streets; a dark-gray little country only alive by the blood of the people who survived in it. The glass kingdom –some people of Karlann called it. Even now in the middle of war, his home country looked remarkably composed about the whole affair. Maybe it was Warf’s inherent dignity as a total, Sie didn’t know.

He hoped Karlann’s people were faring well, or as well as it could be expected given the circumstances. He wondered about Reigh, about his dog, about all the people he had left behind. He hoped they were alive and well.

As he entered Warf’s doors, Sie thought briefly, it lacked color, sun and sand. It was like meeting with a friend you had loved dearly but stopped speaking with –and then found it again and noticed with sad certainty, even though the both of you had been so close, you didn’t know this person anymore. Warf wasn’t his home any more than Karlann was now.

Sie wondered for a fleeting instant, if his decision to come to this place had been the right one. The simplicity of his predicament was this: he was free. No longer a pleasure slave, no longer Karlann king’s favorite, no longer first courtesan and never again Warf’s Orchide, as that he had stopped being a long time ago –and he had thought after five days living in a daze at Ilha’s borders, not really understanding what had happened in Ilha’s palace, that he had nothing now but he had had a family before, a family he had been asking to see constantly. He had left his family in Warf without saying goodbye ten years ago.

Sie had had a life before here, in his uncertainty he had decided to come back to Warf and visit his family, his mother and sisters just once. Sie didn’t plan on staying, no.

He had enough gold with him to buy a house and live easily for the rest of his life without working ever again, but he didn’t suppose he would do that either –he wasn’t really sure once this meeting with his family was done, what it was what he was going to do.

Sie had hoped of course, he had hoped to ask a meeting with Azraq –a formal assembly, as a Warf citizen, if it was necessary to make Azraq see him again; but that plan had failed the day Warf had declared war to Karlann and now well…

Hadid had been his other option. Sie had written him letters, explaining his case, pleading to him to talk to his brother, to get Azraq to see reason; asking him for a meeting, just once –to make Azraq listen to him. But every letter had been unanswered until now and he couldn’t very simply show his face at Karlann’s borders hoping for the best, because even he wasn’t that naïve. Without Azraq’s regard or Hadid’s protection he -as any other Warf son- was fair game in Karlann to take as slave, even more so now in the middle of war. And to him that meant just one thing: Hazan.

Sie shuddered, thinking about that place –Azraq had warned him about it, and he understood the why now.

As he wandered through the city lost in thought –his feet took him without much fuss to the place he once had called home. His mother’s house loomed in front of him, as he looked up and noticed snow had started to fall.

Sie hesitated at the heavy white-wooden doors of his ancestral household, but in the end he decided to knock.

A maid answered of course; his mother descended from a well-known noble family in Warf and she had always had servants and gold to prove it –even before he had been chosen as the Orchide.

The maid tilted her head. “How can I help you, m’lord?” She asked softly.

“I am looking for the Lady of the House, Lady Schnne.” Sie said, feeling faint with nerves.

The maid looked at him for some minutes, studying him –but she nodded quickly enough. “Come with me.”

And Sie did.

The maid took him to a waiting room, offered refreshments and then went on her way to call her employer. Sie waited and glanced around, noticing how many things had changed around this place he used to call home, and how many things stayed the same. It was true, he had lived in the palace after being chosen as the Orchide, but his mother had refused to stop seeing him after that had happened as it was custom.

In his youth Sie had passed as many days in the palace as he had spent here.

A regal woman in black appeared in front of him after some minutes, not really paying attention to him just yet –she looked tired and old, and so very different from how he remembered her, but it was her all the same.

When she lifted her head, stopped talking to her maid, and focused on him though –her eyes went wide and she gasped, covering her mouth with a hand.

She collapsed swiftly to the floor afterwards, at what her maid cried out in surprise.

\---

His mother looked at him –as one would see a dead man walking and speaking, which, he supposed to her that was what he was.

“Mother,” Sie said softly, touching her hand lightly. “It is really me.”

Lady Schnee still looked incapable of forming words, resting on her rocking chair, and close by the hearth.

“Mother,” Sie insisted. “Please, you have to understand. I’m alive. There’s so many things I wish to tell you-”

“How?” His mother rasped. “How this is possible? Are you haunting me now, child? After so many years crying for you, now you haunt me?”

Sie closed his eyes, feeling small. “No,”

“I know it was my fault,” his mother said. “I should have never had accepted you taken away from me to become the Orchide, but child… you had seemed so happy.”

His mother looked at him –as one would see a dead man walking and speaking, which, he supposed to her that was what he was.

“Mother,” Sie said softly, touching her hand lightly. “It is really me.”

Lady Schnee still looked incapable of forming words, resting on her rocking chair, and close by the hearth.

“Mother,” Sie insisted. “Please, you have to understand. I’m alive. There’s so many things I wish to tell you-”

“How?” His mother rasped. “How this is possible? Are you haunting me now, child? After so many years crying for you, now you haunt me?”

Sie closed his eyes, feeling very small and very lost. “No mother please,”

“I know it was my fault,” his mother said. “I should have never had accepted you taken away from me to become the Orchide, but child… you had seemed so happy.”

Ah… yes, he remembered that day, being so young of age and being joyous at the prospect of marring a prince. Not understanding many things, only that he was special and that he would be loved by Kalte, who had been his play mate in those days, above anything else.

"I am as real as I have ever been, mother."

She inhaled sharply. "It's impossible."

Sie knelt in front of her, looked at her and grabbed her frail hands. "I have been living in Karlann these past ten years, I have lived well."

‘I was happy.’

His mother's wide sorrowful eyes looked at him. "But they told me, they told all of us, you were dead."

Sie sighed, not knowing what to say to cure a little of his mother's anguish. "For all intentions I was. I was a slave for ten years, I had a kind master but it was accorded I would never set a foot on Warf again."

She clutched at his hands tightly. "A slave?" She asked, her voice wavering.

Sie swallowed. "It wasn't like you are thinking; I wasn't forced to do anything I didn't like. I did what I wanted."

Lady Schnee frowned, shook her head, confused. "Why?"

"It was I who went with him, willingly." Sie said, feeling raw and so very much exposed, paper thin; his previous sins, his emotions, his love… his mother wouldn’t understand him loving the man who took him away and made him a concubine. She wouldn’t understand him loving someone, a savage as she knew them, from Karlaan. "He… he is a good man."

"How did you escape?" His mother inquired, still looking at him as if she couldn't believe he was real, not really listening to his previous admissions.

"I didn't-"

"Mother?" Another voice asked at what Sie tensed -he had left behind his child sisters, now he supposed the both of them would be no longer children but young beautiful women. They had been so little back then, he wondered if they ever remembered him.

"Mother who is this person you are talking with? I hope not another tutor…"

Sie steeled his resolve, they would know soon enough anyway. He turned and stood, facing a young woman who looked at him curiously. She was very much like their mother, with fair skin, strawberry blonde hair and light green eyes.

Sie assumed the three women looked very alike now his sisters were grownup -and recalled how his mother used to say, Sie had inherited the looks of his deceased father, who had been mother's first husband.

"I am your bother," he said softly. "You may not remember me but I do. You were beautiful as a little girl."

His sister's eyebrows went up to her hairline. "Excuse my bluntness but this is not a tasteful joke to make."

Sie opened his mouth but his mother spoke before he could. "Is no joke."

"B-but how?!" Ria -Sie studied her calmly, he thought he could see it was the eldest of the twins, he didn’t know how he knew but he did. Ria had always been the tamer one, the rational of the two girls- asked.

"Call Rea," their mother ordered. "She needs to be here."

Ria doubted for some minutes but nodded. "She is not been herself since her fiancé was sent away to fight in Karlann." She said looking at Sie. "I don't know how she may receive you if you are indeed who you say to be."

\---

"Don't you see?!" Rea asked almost frenzied once she joined them. "If you are here, there's no reason for the war! King Kalte is doing this just for you, to avenge you but he can stop now! He will stop!"

Sie looked at her and saw the total opposite of her sister; Rea was fire and poor controlled energy, worse of all –she was in love and handling it poorly.

“Kalte can’t see me.” Sie said firmly, shaking his head. He wouldn’t stay in Warf; seeing his family had perhaps been a mistake but he had wanted to see them, his mother most of all, to whom he had caused so much grief –but he wouldn’t be residing in Warf the rest of his days, and much less take the role he had been born to play.  

“Why?” This time it was Ria who probed, curious.

Lady Schnee tilted her head, considering. “Your brother has changed.”

Sie nodded. “I can’t be to him, what he would expect me to be.”

“You can’t just disappear again!” Rea protested, “The king has been heartbroken over you for ten years.”

“You know him well,” Sie stated partial –he wasn’t intending to shame his sister in front of their mother, but he did wonder if Kalte had took her as a lover too.

Rea flushed. “Not like all the other girls at court, I am a friend of his little brother.”

“Hart?” Sie asked, he barely remembered Kalte’s younger brother.

Rea dipped her head. “Yes, that one.”

“An awful person, that little prince,” Ria joined the conversation, with a disproving frown.

“You don’t know him,” Rea refuted with the tone of someone who had had this argument many times.

Their mother shook her head and waved a hand to make them stop. “That’s enough, it’s late already and your brother needs to rest, you can keep at it tomorrow.”

“Mother I’m not-”

“It’s alright child, I don’t expect you to stay with me until I die but at least rest here tonight, and let me mother you some days to really believe you are alive.”

Sie imagined it was only just. “Yes, mother.”

\---

It had been a week since Sie had arrived at his mother’s house, his mother had been as loving and kind as he had always remembered, and even though she never said it, he knew, she wished he would stay forever –he couldn’t stay any longer.

With the twins it had been as different and as similar as he had predicted. Ria and Rea were as different as water and fire and yet he could see they loved each other dearly, they were a unit almost always in agreement. They acted differently with him though, Ria being the most friendly and Rea shying away from his attempts at conversation. He loved them both and hoped for them a live full of happiness –they would be fine without him, having each other.

Sie hadn’t say anything yet but after being five days with them, he thought it was time to leave. He had hoped to depart tomorrow morning.

As night approached and he stayed late with his mother, watching her work with needle and wool in her working room, he assumed it was as good time as any to tell her. “Mother,” he started, faltered for some minutes, but in the end decided to just say it. “I will leave in the morning.”

“I knew already.” His mother said sighing, agile fingers working with the wool. “You could never hide anything from me; it’s in your eyes my child.”

“Please forgive me for all the pain I have caused you,”

Lady Schnee smiled. “You wouldn’t be your father’s son if you didn’t keep me on my toes. Your father had your same eyes, you know, he could never hide anything from me either.”

Sie looked at her, doubting –his father was a sore topic for her mother. She never spoke much about him. “Did he hurt you?”

Lady Schnee looked at him, and shrugged as elegantly as she did any other thing. “I loved him like I was dying and that kind of love is unjust for the one receiving it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sometimes we hurt who we love not loving them like they would like us to love them.” Lady Schnee said steadily. “I loved your father too much, he just loved me, and that hurt.”

Sie looked at his hands, feeling undeniably sad. “I know that kind of love.” He said softly.

Azraq had loved him like his mother had loved his father -perhaps too much. It had been a high price to pay, and Sie still didn't know if he woul ever bleed dry that particular debt -but he wanted to.

"Your father loved me as much as he could, I don't have any complaints now that time has passed, and I have matured."

"But you did while he lived,"

"He left me after you were born," his mother told him. "He couldn't stand how I had become. He came back after some months but I had started seeing your sister's father. He did tell me then, he loved me and that he hoped I found happiness. He died a week after from a rare fever."

"It's a sad tale."

His mother smiled. "Is just a story about love."

"It doesn't have a happy ending."

"Not all stories about love does, child."

"No," he said quietly. "I suppose not."

\---

Sie stared at the little things he had brought, and he would take with him. It wasn’t much just a traveler’s bag, but to him it was enough. It was still dark outside, really early morning, with the whole staff of the household still asleep. His mother had told him to go when he thought it was time but to let her know –Sie wasn’t strong enough to say goodbye to her, so he had left a letter with his reasons, and some of his gold. She would find it once he was well on his way. It was better like this.

His sisters, he assumed, wouldn’t be too surprised to find he had gone –he had left some money for them too.

It was silent when he got out of his old room, and even more so as he walked through the halls of house to the door. As he stood there ready to open it, he glanced around his childhood home one last time. Sie would never come back, not as long as Kalte lived –he would send letter though, he had promised his mother as much.

Sie opened the door, careful of not making too much noise. The heavy wooden doors, cricked for some moments, but the sound went away after a while. After he was out, and he had closed the doors again, he closed his eyes and breathed deep, he touched the frozen snow on the ground and thought how the first time he had left Warf, he hadn’t really wanted to do it and now he did it on his own will.

Sie opened his eyes, strengthened, and walked the little distance to the open streets. It was time to start again.

“I am sorry, I can’t let you leave.” A voice behind him said.

Sie startled, but turned towards it.

Rea was there, in her winter clothing with ten royal guards and a lithe, fair skinned, blonde boy; he couldn’t be older than Reigh.

“It is indeed you,” the boy said with something like wonder in his voice. “I was too small when you supposedly died, I don’t remember you, but I have seen you in frames. My brother has a portrait of you in his study.”

“Rea,” Sie said trying to sound calm, even when inside he was starting to panic. “Whatever you think you will win by this, it won’t be worth it. I can help you if you tell me.”

Rea looked at him, wavered –but shook his head. “I am sorry, is nothing personal.”

“No, it really isn’t,” the boy said, obviously amused. “You see, my lovely Rea here is a free soul, and she loves fiercely; she has loved me for quite a while, and that had made her careless with her affections, and her behavior,” the boy walked closer to her, and grabbed her waist. “But I can’t marry her. As a prince I have to marry out of duty, and people have been talking.”

“No noble will take a wife who has been sullied,” Rea said, her expression miserable and her face flushed. “And I don’t want to shame mother. My fiancé the one fighting, is a minor noble, he is a Captain, and he told me he didn’t care about my past. He lives in the palace too, as part of the court.”

“Once she weds him, there will be no more talk of her virtue and we will be together.” The boy finished, his eyes dancing with good humor.

Sie thought that while she looked hurt and gray with her situation –he looked radiant and so very entertained by it, it was evidently cruel.

“If you come with us to the palace, and we send word, the war will end,” Rea explained. “And my fiancé will come home.”

As the guards made a circle around him, he thought of running. “Rea, I am sorry but I can’t say.”

The boy tutted at him. “Aww, but you will.”

The guards closed the circle then.

“Be quick and silent about it, I don’t want my mother to wake up.” Rea hissed.

Sie nodded and the guards relaxed; as they looked for rope to bound him, though, in a moment of little distraction he crunched down an sprang up –and then he ran, he ran as fast as he could, but it wasn’t enough.

Sie felt the guards, his sister and her lover behind him –all the while the boy hadn’t stopped laughing. “Aww, how unfortunate,” he said as Sie encountered a street with a dead end. “You will make my dull days brighter.” The boy continued.

“At least for a while,” That was the last Sie heard, as he felt a needle pierce the back of his neck, and then all went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It would seem there's still people reading and interested in this story. I had this chapter unfinished like by four weeks, so I sat down today and finished it. Honestly, writer's block, is such an awful thing to have- I mean, I know how the story goes, how it ends (happily, don't worry.) but the words refuse to help me out. All your comments motivate me to try and write too -it's a big help, never forget it. 
> 
> As for some people confused by timelines: these chapters called "War" are some weeks after the end of the first book, is what happened after Sie was freed. Only the chapters called "First meeting" have been a flashback back so far.
> 
> See you, hopefully, soon.


	19. A/N.

For all the lost time in the world.  
For the love that never was.  
For the love who was afraid.  
For the old times.

For the truth I would have liked to see behind Antino's sacrifice.   
For Hadrian and his tears.  
For Apollo and his flower drenched in blood  
And all this fantasies we like to read about.

For them, men who loved men.  
For you.  
And for me.

I tell the world, I tell you this: write, write whatever you would like to read; write men falling in love with men, strong and kind, vicious and wild, write and write and when you are done share it with the world, and let them see a little inside of your own little world--

Thank you for this past year and your support. This story is going to hiatus -I don't know for how long, it could be weeks or months or longer. I'm letting you readers know, because I promised.

'As time and sand' started as an ambitious project, I wrote it just because I could, I wanted to write what I would have liked to read in a story -and I did. The story was nameless when I started it and it's title is just product of my 'naming stories in the last minute' thing -but somehow people still read it, took the time to comment. I suffered a personal loss while writing it and it helped me through it -because while writing I didn't have to think about it. But now I find a great deal of my enthusiasm to write it gone.

I don't know, as you well known I've been struggling with writer's block.

All I can say to you is thank you, and see you again -hopefully soon.


	20. At the border

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS A FLASHBACK.

Azraq had never been much about empathy or about wondering what it would be like to be in the other’s feet, but in this case, he admitted, he wondered about being in Sie’s place. What would the white haired man be thinking at seeing all the tents from Karlann at borders of Warf? At seeing the soldiers? At seeing a considerable army with hostile intentions?

It had to be obvious, and unfortunate –but after the kiss they had shared late last night, Azraq had fled away from Sie as fast as he had been able as if burned, knowing very well it had been a colossal mistake to get so close to someone from Warf, and had told him no to any other meeting or to a last goodbye (even if he had very much wanted to keep being near to Sie); by last Azraq had also refused to tell him where it was he was going every time he left Warf’s palace, and Sie being the prideful fool he was hadn’t taken kindly the negative, which had ended in Azraq being followed to the main camp by a clueless Warf royal.

And now here they were –Sie outside being held by Azraq’s men, demanding to see him and him hiding in his tent. Maybe if Azraq hadn’t pretended to not notice Sie’s awful attempts at tracking this wouldn’t have happened, if he had stopped and turned and grabbed him and sent him back home, he wouldn’t be facing with his men’s unhappiness at his orders of not touching (or doing any harm) the pretty fool from Warf that had fell like a bird in a trap, in Karlann’s army arms; and of course, he wouldn’t be facing Zanbaq’s questions, his shouting or his tears.

Worse than that, facing Sie and whatever he was thinking about Azraq now. The ironic thing was, this shouldn’t have concerned him as much as the previous issues, and yet it was the most heavy matter over his shoulders.

“Your Majesty,” General Khayr called outside of Azraq’s pavilion. “Our prisoner demands to see you very much loudly and Lord Zanbaq wants to… well he seems really upset with the situation and if you don’t appear soon, I don’t know what he will do to the prisioner.”

Azraq closed his eyes and sighed deeply, he supposed he couldn’t keep postponing the situation.

Sie was held in one of the last tent, caged by two guards –and totally bound of hands and feet.

As Azraq entered he noticed all of his men’s curious eyes following him.

“You wanted to see me so badly, well here I am,” Azraq spoke to the bound man in front of him.

Sie stared back at him with wide betrayed red eyes. “What is the meaning of this?”

“It’s obvious, is it not?”

Sie shook his head. “I want you to tell me by your own words, tell me how I’ve been a fool to trust a bitter former slave from Karlann, knowing your lot is below us from Warf, below from me,” the man stopped incredulous. “I gave you my friendship, I let you…”

“Kiss you?” Azraq nodded. “Yes, you kissed a savage and the worse of it, you liked it.”

About this Sie couldn’t lie; he had trembled in Azraq’s embrace and had kissed him back for what had seemed hours, with a fast beating heart.

Sie took a sharp breath, hurt by Azraq’s words. “What is it that you want with Warf?”

“What can a full Karlann army want with this frozen piece of land you call home?”

Sie looked steadily at him, managing to not flinch. “War.”

Azraq dipped his head. “So it would seem.”

“I want to talk to your superior, the one in charge of the camp,” Sie demanded. “I want to speak with the voice of your king.”

“Wouldn’t be wiser to talk with the king himself?”

Sie narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “Another lie, is it?”

“I never lied to you,” Azraq shrugged. “You just didn’t want to believe me when I told you I meant harm for Warf and his royal family,”

Sie hesitated. “What will you do with them?”

“That’s not a concern you need to have.”

“Az-ra-q,” Sie managed to pronounce his name alright this time, even if paused and heavily accented. “Don’t deceive me; I need to speak with your king or his man of charge.”

“That would be me.”

Sie started stunned. “Pardon me?”

Azraq crossed his arms. “The head of the army and Karlann’s new crowned king -that would be me.”

“You have to be joking.”

“Does it look like it?”

Sie paled at his admission and closed his eyes in defeat. “I wish an audience with you then, in name of Warf, and in name of my king.”

Azraq opened his arms, extended them. “You have my attention for now.”

Sie licked his lips. “A deal, an exchange, a fair one… I want to propone this.”

“What could you give to me?”

Sie looked at him, squarely in the eyes –red against blue. “Warf most precious possession, it’s heart and soul, it’s Orchide… it’s Queen.”

"And how?" Azraq asked curious.

"I am free to do with myself as I wish."

Azraq blinked trying to process this new information.

It wasn’t possible, was it? In all truth what possibility there was of his luck to shine so brightly? To have Warf’s Queen captured so easily, it was an outstanding fit; strategically speaking, if what Sie said was not a lie, then Karlann had already won the war without even starting it. Any decent King with enough honor, would surrender a good deal to have their consort back with them, even more so if the consort was loved by the people.

And so far Sie didn’t look like he was lying. But Azraq had no means of knowing, it could very well be Sie was only the king’s lover, an amusement to pass the time, or just a friend in love who was trying to protect the royal family at any cost.

Azraq hesitated, staring at the man who had become an obsession the previous days.

“You don’t believe me.” Sie stated bitter. “But why would you when I have acted nothing at all like a Queen with you but just a common whore.”

“I don’t mind them whores.”

Sie stared at him, lips drawn in a tight line. “You have seen my rooms, my clothes, my maids, my comforts all of it –you really think a common concubine would had so much?”

Azraq supposed that depended of the love of the king towards the said lover. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Sie closed his eyes, “I am the Orchide of Warf, have been since I was a little child. I am to be wed to Warf’s King soon, and then I will be Queen. I can’t make you believe me but you can send one of your men to ask about me, about the Orchide. I am not lying.”

“Yes.” Azraq had thought as much, of course. “And if it were to be true what is this contract you propone?”

Sie licked his lips, looking down; his body tense and strained. “I in exchange of you not bringing devastation to my people or harm to the royal family.”

“It’s a big presumption on your part to believe you are worth so much.”

Sie narrowed his eyes, red glittering in anger. “I have felt your desire, and you do want me.” Sie paused and looked at him hauntingly, even as bound as he was his pride wouldn’t allow Sie to break. “And what better arrangement than have Warf’s Queen as your personal whore?”

Azraq clenched his fingers. He didn’t want to be here with this man so different from the one he had foolishly come to like –whose words were like the sweetest of poisons Eis had made him swallow.

Because he had a revenge to settle –and yet…

“Wouldn’t you love it?” Sie demanded harshly. “Raping me here as your slave, in front all of this animals you call men? Well, yes, I wouldn’t struggle, I am giving you my word; I would belong to you for the rest of your life if you were to let this war go.”

“Not all my life, just until the debt your King owes me was paid.”

And of course Azraq wouldn’t be raping him, the mere thought made him sick. He still remembered his sister’s pleas to all the men that took her the night she died, to stop, please stop.

But taking Sie as a mere companion, just as they had been doing the previous days…

It was foolishness.

Azraq shook his head and stepped out of the tent without another word. He would send some of his men to ask about Warf’s Queen and if what Sie was saying was truthful, then he would think what advantage he could take out of it –as he stepped out in the cold he tried to ignore how his mind still kept stuck in Sie’s words:  _I would belong to you for the rest of your life if you were to let this war go._

And wasn’t that an enticing notion?

Azraq sighed. It seemed like he had a really long night ahead.

\---

"Is it him?" Zanbaq asked, arms clasped behind his back. "The person you have been going to visit all this past week?"

Azraq supposed he could very well say no, but Zanbaq would notice he was lying anyway. "Yes."

Zanbaq didn't answer immediately at that -and Azraq risked a glance towards him. Here in a calm spot of Warf's snowy woods, outside the tent, and outside the influence of the men, Zanbaq didn't look as severe and sharp as he always did.

Azraq looked at the clear night sky. "Do you hate me now?"

Zanbaq sighed. "That depends. You want to fuck him?"

There were many excuses and veiled answers to that question; but the cold real truth was only ever one, and Zanbaq knew him too well already. "Yes."

"That's the first time you have ever showed interest in a man."

Azraq shrugged. "I don't know how to explain it."

"Maybe if you just fuck him, then you can get it out of you."

"He doesn't want me enough for it to be consensual." Azraq swallowed. He wasn't comfortable talking about this with Zanbaq for many reasons -but more than that because, they had never talked in painful detail about the night Azraq had found him almost dead, naked and bleeding in the whore-house where he worked as an errand boy.

"Take him by force." Zanbaq said calmly, and without much emotion. "As it was done to me by his kin."

"How can you ask that of me?"

"What do you expect me to say? That I am happy for you? To give you my blessings so you can… What? Court him? Is that it? You want him enough to court him?"

"Zanbaq," Azraq tried patiently. "I am not doing anything more than giving him back to his people once I get a something out of his status. I won't be courting him or any of the sort, this is just a passing thing."

"You deceive yourself, my love."

"I don't."

Azraq didn't think he was being false. Sie was just an error of bad judgment, nothing more -and he would go home soon. It was how it was supposed to be, Sie had no place in Azraq's life or in Karlann.

"I don't really want for you or any other to rape him. I don't wish that happening for any other person. You know this." Zanbaq said hushedly, hunched on himself. "It's just I'm not blind, I see the way he looks at you."

Azraq's smiled tiredly. Sometimes Zanbaq was so wrong on his predictions, it was almost amusing. "And how that would be?"

"Like you are wonderful, like he wants you. Like I look at you myself."

"You are saying nonsense."

Zanbaq shrugged. "It may be so but the fact remains, you want him."

"It will pass soon enough and then it will be just the two of us again." Azraq nodded at his friend. "As I promised you."

Zanbaq snorted, but he didn't look happy. "A promise is just that, a promise. It means nothing in the end. There are things we can't control."

\---

The information he had asked for had come back earlier tan he had expected, but there was not mistake Sie was indeed who he had said he was: Warf’s Orchide and rightful Queen.

It was close to the hour where he would start sending the troops to take the capital; Warf’s Royal Family would cease to exist soon and yet between all of this stood Sie in the middle –forever, he had said.

It didn’t have to be this way. Azraq could just take him, forcefully, with him anyway after Warf was brought to its knees, as his right as conquering King. But the notion, the notion of something like that made vile rise to his throat.

And if by some madness he decided to…

The army would see him as weak if he stopped the attack. The council would turn his back and the border lands would demand a marriage immediately –at seeing him take a stranger as concubine. He could very well be facing a civil war after this, if he decided Sie was worth the hassle. Azraq wasn’t worried much about himself if all this happened but he did worry for Hadid; he had to keep the kingdom whole until the rightful king was in age to inherit, that had been his promise to Hadid’s father.

It was madness.

His feet took him without him noticing to the place he less wanted to be in. Sie stood still inside the tent, with only a guard  posted outside.

“Your Highness.” Azraq said blandly once inside.

Sie looked up from his position sprawled on the floor, even bound and rumpled he looked like royalty –but then again that might have only been Warf’s pride rearing its claws tightly in.

“You believe me now.”

Azraq looked back at him. “It would seem so, yes.”

“And does that mean you accept the contract?”

Azraq studied him curiously. “You aren’t afraid of what I could do to you?”

“I have a fair idea.” Sie said unflinchingly.

“How far would you go to accomplish it? To make it happen? To save your beloved Kingdom and you beloved King?”

“Do you expect me to beg?” Sie asked carefully.

“Would you?”

Sie nodded, swallowing hard. “I would do anything you asked of me.”

“Very well,” Azraq said. “I will give you an opportunity, if you make me believe it in front of eight thousand men, your country and your king might have a fighting chance.”

Azraq had left it to luck in the end –his wishes of revenge, his want, Sie’s plea and Warf’s fate. This was a coin in the air, and yet he supposed he already knew the outcome. Sie wouldn’t do it; his pride, his foolish pride wouldn’t allow it out of him. He had been raised to be royalty and royalty -even more so being from Warf- didn’t kneel.

“You have an hour to decide.”

After he was done he called his Generals and ordered to start the first formation of attack, they would be marching to Warf’s capital in an hour.

\---

It happened at the last moment with the first formation of the men already in position and Azraq at the front with the cavalry; Sie was brought in chains by two guards, and knelt in front of him.

All the men looked at him curiously while Azraq felt himself paling considerably. This shouldn’t be happening, Royalty didn’t kneel. Eis would first stab himself than yield.

“I promise to serve you with mind, body and heart,” Sie said slowly as if reciting his words from a well-known memory, as if learned by heart with years of practice. “I promise to look over you when sickness befalls you or when joy arrests you.” Sie looked down at his own bound hands. “What I am, it belongs only to you, forever and until the five kingdoms come to ashes. I guard only one man, and that man is only my King.” Red eyes finally meet him and in a final exhale, Sie said. “I am yours if you take me, my King.”

All the men looked at him afterwards and Azraq had to close momentarily his eyes. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

‘There are things we can’t control.’

This was beyond his control now. As Sie knelt and waited Azraq wondered what this circumstances would cost them later -because there would be a price, there always was. 

The simple answer, however, at the moment was: he didn't care. In a single moment everything faded away and the sounds around him stopped, like a careful, beloved, painting preserved in time while all the world kept moving around it: Sie at his feet, with his glittering ruby eyes, and his snow white hair and clothes. He looked like a jewel covered by snow and Azraq, Azraq wanted him badly.

He wanted him more than revenge and more than honor; he wanted him in spite of everything and he didn't care, couldn't bring himself to care about the consequences anymore. 

Azraq dismounted and signaled his men to retreat -an order than was met with confusion but that was accepted anyway.

Sie looked expectantly at him afterwards.

"You will never be able to come back, see your family, your people or the King for whom you have given so much. After this you will no longer be an Orchide or a Queen. Are you sure of this?" Azraq asked carefully.

"I understand your terms."

Azraq narrowed his eyes. "A bed slave. Just a concubine of the harem in Karlann's palace. You will be only this."

Sie nodded. A tight line of determination on his jaw.

"So be it then you fool, my honor for your honor."

"I am yours if you take me, my King." Sie repeated stubbornly.

"Yes."

Sie blinked, his breath coming ragged. "Unbound me then. You have my word I won't scream even if you fuck me here with all of them watching me from afar."

Azraq sighed. "I am not interested in forcing you or any other, but maybe one day when you are whiling I will come to you."

Sie frowned. "But I thought-"

Azraq shook his head and knelt -they were face to face now, at even ground starting to lift the chains that kept Sie still. When it was done, Sie only looked at him a long while but didn't say anything else. 

The beginning of forever started in Azraq's opinion, rather unremarkable but even that didn't seem to matter as much. 

"You are smiling." Sie said cautious and with obvious resentment.

"I am happy." Azraq answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it took a month. Well maybe more than that if you don't count the hiatus note, two months then? I don't know what happened or if the block is over, but this past month I didn't even try to write or open notes or word, nothing… I just read, and read and read (some really good published books of m/m) and two days ago I got the itch to write and I did, and it was easy, something that hadn't been this previous months that the writer's block was with me.
> 
> Anyway we are two chapters of book II ending, and I want to post weekly so yeah, there will be a chapter next week and next week.
> 
> This chapter is the end of the flashbacks of the story -meaning there won't be more, and of course is what happens after First meeting III.
> 
> As always I would love to hear your thoughts, it's always important to a writer to hear we are not alone in this.


	21. Yielding I

Hadid closed his eyes, feeling remarkably sick. Zanbaq was sleeping at his side, only a light sheet covering his body –they had married only some hours ago, legally by Karlann’s law and with the council’s blessing. They had consummated as well, and Zanbaq had been so drunk, he had fallen asleep right afterwards.

Hadid covered his face with his hands, whatever else, it was done and Zanbaq was stuck with him until death, as in Karlann divorce was non-existent and trying to leave a legal consort was seen as capital offence and punished by law –oh yes, Zanbaq could had as many lover as he wanted already being married, and nothing would happen to him, Karlann was not like Warf that punished infidelity but it didn’t allow the breaking of the matrimony contract.

They were in the royal rooms of the palace, Azraq and Sie’s rooms, than later had only been lived in by Sie; and even now Hadid could accept he felt like a child sleeping in his parents’ bedroom, with no major notion of what he was doing. He wasn't King yet.

The council had been demanding, extremely so, already seeing him as a weak puppet to control. They claimed for Azraq’s death or banishment to the slave market; the war with Warf had already taken many men and resources and they didn’t seem inclined to stop anytime, with Solnce right behind them backing them up… the only saving grace had been Lucendella’s refusal to participate in the matter, thanks to the current precarious position of their own Royal house, after the Crown Prince had committed suicide, and all the following heirs breaking in a fight over the succession.

And Sie’s letters that instead of being a balm as he was used to, were a stressful thing to read about. Hadid knew Sie wanted to be back, but with the current situation, it was impossible.

An early summon from Warf's King had arrived that morning, asking for the two of them to meet in neutral ground, and with a partial cease-fire, but Hadid hadn't answered yet. It could very well be a deceit.

 A way to finish the war without spilling more blood, just a clear cut to the head of Karlann's army, and the country would fall into chaos and Warf would finally have total control -of course in a better outcome, in an idealized world, maybe the King of Warf just wanted to reach a peaceful agreement, and that's why he had reached out towards Hadid.

Hadid slouched in the bed, his head pounding. He couldn't do it. He was no King.

"Your majesty?" a shy servant asked, knocking on his door. "The council asks for an audience regarding Warf's matters. They told me to tell you this."

Hadid sighed, feeling already defeated. "Yes. I will be there shortly."

"Never let them see you down, or weak. Make them respect you or they will tear you apart." Zanbaq said from between the pillows, not even glancing at him. "Follow you instincts, trust no one until someone proves you he or she is worthy of that trust. In you I raised a King, something I could never do with your brother who foolishly believed he was only your guardian. You are a King so act accordingly."

Hadid looked at him surprised. He had thought Zanbaq would never speak to him again, after what he had made him do today.

"What are you waiting for?" Zanbaq asked impatient. "Move!" he pressed forcefully and that was enough to have Hadid standing and looking for suitable clothes to face the council.

\---

King Kalte's character was not how Hadid had judged the day he met him in Ilha, but that didn't mean much in any case. The council had won at the end of a long and tiring meeting, and it had beed decided Hadid would go to negotiate the ceasefire. If he was killed by accident during this events, well... it would only be pure bad luck, and the council would put on the throne someone else a little more adequate, someone willing to be advised, and more familiar with them and their ways. They didn't say this of course, but Hadid understood clearly the implications. 

It had been non-negotiable, and with the council having the power, and Karlann without a new crowned King there had been no option. If Hadid didn't go… it would mean: he wasn't interested in ending the war, and that meant he didn't care about his people, which made him unfit to rule. 

It was a no-win situation for him in any case. 

"Would you like a drink?" Warf's King offered politely. 

They were in a tent in no man's land, with a temporary truce and five guards of Karlann plus five guards of Warf acting as only escort. So far, it didn't look as an ambush. 

Hadid shook his head. Zanbaq had always said to him: never drink during negotiations, or when you are not sure if the person offering you the drink is an enemy or a friend. "I decline but you can go ahead."

Kalte regarded him curiously, taking a sip of his own cup of wine. "I didn't think I would be speaking with you again. You are remarkably young."

"Is that a problem?" 

"Not really," Kalte said slightly amused, trying to appease him. "I just didn't expect you to be Karlann's ruler." 

Hadid had never expected it either, but somethings just happened, he supposed. It was only about making the best out of his situation. "I was appointed for the place just some days ago, but that's not your business. I came here to talk about a ceasefire and so far you haven't said anything about it."

"You are very direct." Kalte pondered, tilting his head. "What happened to the previous King?"

"I suggest you to stop treating me like a fool." Hadid spat incensed. "I know very well you have intelligence on us, you know about our political situation and the civil war that preceded it to take my brother out of the throne, so stop acting ignorant."

Kalte looked down towards his cup, tracing the rim with his fingers. "I may have approached this issue wrongly. Please, listen to me before you decide anything."

Hadid crossed his arms expectantly. 

"I would like for you to sit," Kalte said nodding towards a chair. 

Hadid sat and waited. 

"I am heartsick. Do you remember this?" Kalte asked quietly. 

Hadid hesitated. Kalte was talking about the first time they spoke to each other in Ilha. "Yes, I remember."

"Well, you were not wrong." Kalte looked at him, and Hadidcould see clearly hurt in his amber eyes. "I have been heartsick for ten years."

Hadid frowned. "I don't see how that has anything to do with-"

Kalte interrupted him, shaking his head. "This war is not about gold or slaves, or even about our kingdoms distaste for each other. Do you know what Warf's Orchide is?" 

"A healing plant." Hadid answered, remembering some of his old lessons with Zanbaq. "A really strong one, said to be able to cure anything. A legend, only."

"In a sense, but that's not all," Kalte said. "The plant exists, It grows every fifty years and is only ever used by Warf's Royal family, the plant is appointed a guardian every generation and that guardian is generally Warf's Queen, only the Queen knows the location of the plant and how to be used to heal as the roots are poisonous. In Warf the plant is often associated with prosperity and health, and ultimately with fertility; it's a symbolic given that just as you my people doesn't believe it exists. Every Queen of Warf takes the title of Orchide after they are chosen."

Hadid looked at him curiously, despite himself.

"My Orchide was killed ten years ago by your people. It was said they were bandits, and that they took him out of the palace with a trap to capture him. We only ever found some of his clothes, at the borders, stained with blood."

"When you say Orchide, you mean your Queen?"

Kalte nodded. 

"And that's your reason." Hadid could understand revenge.

"It is. It has been my only motivation to keep going day by day, to get revenge on Karlann, that took away something so precious to me."

"Well, then I don't know what are we doing here. It's evident you don't wish a ceasefire negotiation."

"There is a reason," Kalte said, sounding strangely lost. "There always is a reason."

"I am listening."

"My intelligence informed me about a witch." He whispered. 

Hadid eyebrows went up. Only Lucendella was knows to believe in magic, the other kingdoms were very skeptical to it. "A witch?"

"A witch from Warf with white hair and red eyes that cursed you land, and bewitched your previous King. A witch that was his lover." Kalte finished looking him directly in the eyes. 

Hadid faltered. Sie? What had to do Sie with this? 

"My Orchide had the same coloring of hair and eyes, and I, I need to know if it is him and where he is now."

Hadid swallowed dryly. It couldn't be. Sie was the legitimate Queen of Warf? Hadid had known Sie was no simple commoner, that he was from a noble house… but the Orchide? A Queen? 

"I don't know where he is or if he is your Orchide."

"Sie." Kalte said quietly. "His name was Sie."

Hadid paled. 

"Do you know him?" 

Hadid closed his eyes, and remembered all the times that as a child he had run to Sie's side to ask for love and comfort, when Zanbaq and his brother had been particularly hard on him. "He raised me along my tutors and my brother."

Kalte inhaled sharply. "Are you sure?"

"Sie from Warf,  extremely well-mannered, white-haired and red-eyed, and so, so fucking kind." Hadid clenched his fingers. What had his brother done? This situation was impossible. "He is alive."

"He was your bother's whore for ten years."

Hadid recoiled. "It wasn't like that."

"He was a Queen and your people… your brother, he took him as his personal sex slave." Kalte almost shouted enraged. "How many times did your brother rape him? Did you take part too?" 

"No! It wasn't like that! They loved each other!" Hadid answered back agitated. "They still do!"

"How dare you!" Kalte stood up, throwing every thing on the table. "HOW!"

"Sie loves us! I don't know where he is but he has been free for some months now, if he didn't look for you he must have his reasons. This war you are so bent on pursuing is meaningless as Sie is alive. Desist. Desist and I will forget it ever happened, I will make arrangements to start a civil relationship with Warf. If you don't, I will retaliate with all my armed force and many blood will be shed. I will take your capital also, and many of your people will be sold to the slave market." Hadid warned.

"Your previous King," Kalte finally answered with ragged breathing and kneeling on the floor, after some minutes of destroying everything in the room. "Is all that I ask, bring me your previous King as a prisoner in sign of your good will and I will call a ceasefire. You have a week."

\---

"Hadid," Zanbaq called him, just as he and his guards entered the palace.

"I can't speak with you now." Hadid didn't have time for this. He knew the guards had heard Kalte's request, and that they were the most loyal to the council, and would waste almost no time in going with the old bastards. He needed to take Azraq out of the palace before it was too late.

"Well too bad, you fucked me and married me and now thanks to this, I have the right to make you as miserable as I want." Zanbaq snarled.

"I can't do this in this moment!"

"You will find a way," Zanbaq spat, grabbing his wrists and making him feel as if he was a silly eight years child, all over again.

"Make it quick." Hadid ordered once they were alone.

"I have been hearing things," Zanbaq narrowed his eyes. "The council didn't like our union as much as you thought, they also don't approve your decision of marrying one girl of the tribus as concubine. They want you to take one of their daughters as first concubine instead."

Hadid closed his eyes. Fuck. Getting one of their daughters would be equal to handing them the crown, and Karlann wouldn't resist in one piece if the council managed to put their hands on the treasury room.

"I have to go." Hadid said, shaking his head.

"What has you so upset?" Zanbaq lifted an eyebrow.

Hadid knew very well, that he couldn't lie to his former tutor at all. He had tried many times as a child, and it had never really worked. The punishment Zanbaq had giving him for lying had been exceptional as well. "I can't do this. Let me go." He said frustrated.

Zanbaq studied him, with something like worry shining in his eyes. "You need to dissolve that council and get a new one, full of people you can trust, they are only waiting for you to make a wrong move to cast you oug of the crown. Stop fretting and hear me out, silly child!"

And maybe that was what made it happen. Or his stress -perhaps the shock that hadn't abated of knowing Sie's true persona. Sie, the blood of his veins… Someone Hadid had always thought, as close as he was to ever get a mother. Or that his brother had gone so far as to steal a fucking Queen.

"I am not a child any longer, and you are not my tutor," Hadid said shaking Zanbaq's hold on his wrist, and shoving him to the wall. "You are the Malika and nothing else, you don't have the right to advise me or tell me what to do. Stay out of my concerns. If you want to hate me… then go ahead, I don't care."

Zanbaq inhaled sharply and slapped him hard across the right cheek.

Hadid took his hand towards his throbbing face, and turned away without another word. Zanbaq could hate him as much as he wanted to; they had enough life together in the future for Zanbaq to keep doing it. His brother was much important at the moment.

When he arrived Azraq's cell rooms, everything seemed normal. He dismissed the guards as usual and entered hurriedly.

Azraq was reading peacefully on his bed, one of the traditional fairytales books of Karlann that Sie liked so much, the one that had the covers faded from use. Hadid remembered Sie saying it was the one he had grabbed first to learn their language -Azraq looked up to him at hearing his footsteps.

"You have to leave now." Hadid said almost manic. "The King of Warf wants your head and the council will give it to him. You took his Queen."

"Yes I did." Azraq answered calmly. "Is Sie with him?"

Hadid shook his head incredulous. "That's your major concern? Aren't you listening to me? You have to go!"

"I only want to know if he is alright."

"Sie isn't there." Hadid explained hurriedly while unlocking his brother's chains. "You will go out of the palace tonight, much earlier than we had expected, there's nothing ready for you -but I will find a way to give you resources, gold, whatever you need once you are outside."

Azraq nodded, starting to shake his sore muscles.

"Well brother," Hadid said with a knot on his throat. After this he would be truly alone. No more running towards Azraq to ask for advise. "This is goodbye."

Azraq opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the noise of his cell being opened again. "Easifa Azraq, former King of Warf, you are to appear in front of Karlann's council immediately, to answer for all your wrong doings, and the crimes you committed against this country." A guard said. "If you refuse to come, you will be dismissed accordingly, and if someone else sides with you to try and make you escape, this person will be chaged with high treason as well." This last part was said towards Hadid.

"You can't do this, I am the current King."

"Orders are orders, sir." the guard said calmly.

"I will go with them Hadid," Azraq said easily, as if he had known all along something like this could happen. After all everything they had been doing since the start of the year, with Hadid's infiltration to the council to learn about their plans had been a gamble, and in gambles winning was never a secure outcome. "I won't let them get the throne your father defended so much, I gave my word to him to put you in there. You can't let them win either, as they don't have any evidence against you to get you a trial. You are the rightfully heir of Karlann."

"There has to be a way-" Hadid pleaded desperately.

Azraq shook his head. "Anything you say will be heard by enough witness to get you a trial. Stop speaking."

"Goodbye Hadid," Azraq said finally, walking towards the guard.

"I am ready to face judgement."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the last one of part II. Then we have only eleven more to go. There's a new work in waiting when this one is done as well, hopefully.
> 
> As always I would love feedback if you want to leave it.


	22. Yielding II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember, no matter what happens- I promised a happy ending. Yes there is a HAEA. Only eleven more chapters to go.

Sie opened his eyes thanks to the insistent light coming through the windows; he had forgotten how early the sun was out in Warf. He sat on his bed and waited for his jailers to come tell him what he was supposed to be doing today –so far it had been just lurking the gardens and the throne room, showing him how the palace had changed in his absence and making him remember some of Warf’s customs and protocol. Hart and, at least five of his own guards, always seemed to be in good deposition to speak with him, while his own sister avoided him. Perhaps out of guilt.

This morning everything was different, as two maids knocked on his door. Sie wasn’t sure but he thought the room he was currently in wasn’t in the main part of the palace. A servant’s room fit more the place he had been placed in, and for a brief moment Sie wondered if his own room, somewhere close to Kalte’s still existed or if it had been refurnished and erased of all of his previous pertinences.

“Sir, Prince Hart sent us with some fresh clothes.” One of the maids said meekly.

Sie nodded at them, surprised at the color and quality of the robes, all of them white with delicious brocade and very expensive. He had been wearing simple clothes the servants left for them all week.

“Prince Hart insists for you to try them on, sir.” The other maid chirped.

Sie hesitated but in the end did as he was told. Trying to escape had been futile, as the previous three times he had tried his intents had been frustrated, and the servants responsible for his care had been punished. For some estrange reason Hart made him very uneasy, and wary.

Sie tried the clothes, and to his surprise it was a perfect fit. Warf’s robes tended to leave little skin exposed, and were really warm to protect from the cold; and it was perhaps all the years spent in Karlann but Sie missed the freedom and little overheating Karlann’s clothes provided for him.

“I see I was not wrong about your clothes size.” Hart said merrily entering the room without knocking.

Sie looked at him but didn’t say anything.

“Oh no darling, don’t be shy,” Hart smiled broadly, making Sie truly uncomfortable.

Hart shook his head. “I am not interested in you in that way. You are too old, even if I do admit you are beautiful. You are here only to ease my boredom for a while, and then to make things a little more interesting.”

“How?” Sie asked restless.

Hart narrowed his eyes, amused. “Any way I want. You will meet someone special today.”

Sie didn't say anything else; he was afraid to ask who this special person was.

Hart left afterwards with a cheerful 'see you soon.' and whistling all the time. 

Kalte's little brother was a mere boy, and yet Sie could see how all the maids and servants, plus the guards that assisted him shuddered in fear when the prince walked close to any of them. Hart seemed to be in a persistent state of happiness despite any of this, though –which perhaps made it worse. The only one who didn’t seem disturbed by Hart was Sie’s sister that followed the prince around like a good trained puppy. Sie felt pity for her.

Warf was as cold and as grey as ever, and once alone Sie thought he had been an idiot all this time for wanting to come back. There was nothing here for him any longer. He just wanted to go home, to Karlann, to Hadid and…

“Azraq,” Sie said softly, glancing briefly towards the boxed blue flower Azraq had giving him as parting gift. The flower glowed lightly in his bedside table; he had been carrying it with him all the time.

At midday someone knocked on his door again. Sie answered a brief, “Come in.”

The two maids were back, one with a brush and some paint, the other with jewelry.

“I don’t use painting or jewelry.” Sie said stiffly. In Karlann such things were reserved for the lowest whores of Hazan -Zanbaq had been an exception and done as he pleased with all the jewelry he wore; there hadn’t been anyone to complain or mock him after all- while in Warf it was reserved for brides or consorts in their wedding day. Sie wasn’t keen be one or the other.

“Prince Hart insists.” One of the girls said nervously.

“Please, or he will punish us.” The other added with a trembling voice.

Sie sighed, shaking his head –but accepted in the end. They placed the jewelry on him; one diamond earring on his right ear, a pearl necklace, and a delicate chain wrist on his left hand. The painting was easier as Sie was very clear he wanted very little of it on his face, in the end the only painted his lips a delicate shade very similar to his own color.

He was taken out of his rooms afterwards, led by the maids and five guards. Sie knew the palace and the different wings and rooms, and the paths towards them; he knew they were walking towards the throne room and could only shake at thinking what waited for him there. It wouldn’t be something good.

“We are here,” one maid said softly to the guards protecting the entrance to the throne room.

The man nodded and opened the doors, “There’s no one yet inside, only Prince Hart.”

“Thank you,” she answered ushering Sie inside, and just as the guard had said the throne room remained empty except for Hart that was sprawled on the king’s chair.

Sie wondered what this was about, but tried to appear calm.

Hart smiled at him, his head on one hand. “So glad you could come.”

“Is there anything you need from me?”

“Take him to the far end of the room,” Hart said jovially. “Form a circle around him and don’t let him be seen.” He ordered to his guards that did as they were told immediately.

“I love surprises.” Hart said, delighted, to himself.

They weren’t alone for much, as quickly after they had settled a young blonde girl entered, followed by a slightly older dark haired one. Sie stared at the first, the resemblance between Hart and her painfully obvious. She was Kalte’s sister as well.

The blonde haired girl took her place at one of the chairs of the Royal family, with the dark haired one staying standing close behind her.

Hart smiled at them, and they smiled back –oblivious to his maliciousness.

After that, the whole of Warf’s Council entered the room. Sie didn’t remember very well their names or faces, but he recognized their clothes and the ring on their finger accrediting them as Council. They weren’t pleased to see Hart in the King’s chair, but they didn’t say anything to him either. Sie wondered if maybe, they feared him too.

And lastly, and to the blonde’s girl excitement, a group of royal escorts entered the room. They were elite, at least twelve and all ported the red band in their arm of personal guard to the king.

Sie felt something heavy set on the pit on his stomach. He suspected what followed after the guards, and it made him anxious. It wouldn’t be good, not for him.

After the guards came a man, he was holding something, a leash or maybe a chain? Sie wasn’t able to see him clearly from his position, thanks to the men flanking him in a circle –and yet he knew, he knew who the last man who had entered was.

The man walked forwards to the King’s chair, with all of his escort and the chain –and that made possible for Sie to see him; golden hair and amber eyes, white clothes, back straight, and a proud way of walking. Kalte hadn’t changed in all the years they had been apart, he looked remarkably the same. Sie didn’t ache at the sight of him any longer.

“Welcome home dear brother,” Hart chirped still on the throne.

“Kalte, you are back!” The blonde girl squealed happily.

Kalte smiled at them, sincerely, and nodded –yanking the chain on his hand.

“Oh?” Hart looked entertained by whatever it was attached to Kalte’s hand, “I always wanted a dog. Did you finally bring one for me?” He asked sweetly.

Kalte hesitated but yanked the chain forward, not saying anything.

And that’s when Sie finally sow it –what was attached to the chain; his eyes opened wide, and he gasped in shock, bringing a hand to his mouth.

Sie felt sick, at the point of wanting to throw up; and had to grab a guard to not faint, but very close to it.

“Or are we going to put him to sleep. The dog seems very hurt anyway.” The girl said delicately, looking at the leash.

Sie whimpered and tried to break free of his improvised prison, but to not avail. His eyes were clouded with tears.

“Don’t hear Primel,” Hart complained. “I can train him like a good dog; he could be used to please all your Royal guard after I am done with him.”

Sie cried out, anguished, at that, the tears finally leaking freely from his eyes. “Let go of me!”

Hart tilted his head. “Ah yes, I had a present for you brother.”

Kalte lifted an eyebrow. “Out with it Hart.”

The young prince shrugged. “Let him go.”

The men holding him broke formation and Sie was finally free to run towards the person kneeling on the floor –the person was a bloodied mess, he had very large cuts in all his body and had been obviously hit again and again and again until bones had broken. He had been whipped too, and had trouble breathing and opening one of his eyes; the fingers of his eyes were twisted to an unnatural angle, and it was obvious he was dizzy from the blood loss.

How could this have happened?

Sie knelt in front of him, still crying –he extended a hand towards the wounded person’s face, whom didn’t even react at his touch.

“Azraq,” Sie called softly, hoping to bring him back from whatever place he had gone to withstand the pain. “Azraq, I am here.” He tried again but it was impossible, there was no reaction or recognition in Azraq’s eyes.

After a while trying the same with the same results, Sie lifted his head –Kalte was looking at him, as if he were seeing a ghost.

“What did you do to him?” Sie asked harshly.

“Only what he deserved.” Kalte spat, still in shock at seeing Sie right there in front of him.

“Unchain him.”Sie ordered roughly and with urgency, trying to stop the tears. “Take him to a healer! He could die!”

“Sie?” Kalte asked still not sure if this was another of his hallucinations.

Sie stood, his face held high, although his semblance defeated. “Take him to a healer, please, please Kalte.”

“You were dead for ten years, and then you weren’t any longer,” Kalte said incredulous. “I grieved you for ten years, and this is the first thing you say to me after all that happened?”

Sie hung his head. “Please help him,” he said between pained sobs that shook his body. “Please.”

'Please, don't leave me alone. Azraq, please, come back to me. I love you.'

Kalte didn't say anything at first, studying him slowly. "What did they do to you? Sie? How can you care for him after he took you away from home, from everything you knew and cared about?"

Sie shook his head, his eyes full of tears at seeing how Azraq struggled to breath more and more, plus the pool of blood getting bigger by the second arround him.

"Please Kalte," Sie begged. "You have to help him."

"Sie," Kalte warned in voice that suggested his wish would not be granted. Kalte had used that same voice with Sie many times when they were children, and he would not comply. Sie knew Kalte was unmovable once he had decided on something.

"Please, I will do anything," Sie whispered softly. "I will do anything you want."

Kalte studied him once more, and Sie could see his resolve wavering.

"Kalte," Sie pleaded again. "Take him to a healer."

"The original Orchide," Kalte nodded. "I want the original Orchide at my side. Do you agree to this?"

Sie closed his eyes, and in a moment he saw Karlann with it's wide desserts, the life he had lead there -Hadid, Reigh, his obligations and his happiness at being allowed to dance.

He saw Azraq sleeping peaceful by his side, before everything started to fall apart -it had been an unusual morning and they had slept until very late; Sie had awoken first and had just looked at him for a long while, and for a moment there, he had wished… he had wished for forever without even noticing it.

"I accept the terms," Sie said finally.

\---

END OF PART/BOOK II.

\---

 


	23. Short Extra Story. II.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short extra story I felt like writing, it is of their first night together -so it's a flashback, chronically it happened a year after Sie was taken to Karlann. It's not important plot wise, just a little something I felt like sharing.
> 
> Also betaed by Everarcher, who kindly offered to help me with this one. <3\. Thank you (and all my love) to her.

It's foolish of him to think so, this foolish notion of love, but Azraq didn't know better. He didn't want to believe he did, anyway -not with Sie sleeping right beside him, nude and pliant, soft and content after what they had done. For the first time.

Azraq hadn't believed it would ever come to pass; not with Sie who had been fighting him every step of the way; showing his pride and distaste for what Azraq was, for his people and his culture.

And yet after a year it had happened.

Azraq had considered the possibility of making Sie his bed slave when he had taken Sie from his home, but he had never actually intended to go through with it. Azraq wouldn’t have forced him - or anyone else for that matter. He still remembered the cries of the women working in the whore-houses of Hazan when they had been ordered to satisfy their clients. His mother and sister… and Azraq had always been the one left to deal with the aftermath. It hadn’t been easy, and he had always hated it. So he had never forced himself on his bed slave.

Sie had been the one to come to him on his own will, on his own terms, last night.

They had also engaged in some intimacy the previous week as well, but nothing beyond innocent touches and light caresses.  
Sie hadn’t said much, but Azraq suspected Sie had never been touched this way before. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had though. Not at all.

Last night had been different; powerful men from across the borders had arrived at the palace, seeking to strengthen their positions by marrying one of their daughters to Azraq. So, Azraq had called all of the women from Hadid's father's harem to entertain. He'd hoped that the women would distract his visitors from their original purpose. Curiously enough, it had worked; the men had drank Albira -bitter alcohol- and been happy with the women forgetting their intentions regarding Azraq.

The dinner… It had been decadent, and infused with the promise of sex. Sie had been there, at his side and had witnessed everything with a scandalized demeanor. Warf wasn't as open as Karlann regarding sex. One of the women of the harem, the head of it, had been bold enough to come and perch on Azraq's lap. He hadn't touched her but he had looked at her, and all her the skin on display. She had been scantily dressed, only a translucent skirt of colorful silks on her; her breasts almost bare, with only a delicate translucent scarf as covering...  
and she had danced on his lap, enticing to come closer to her with the sensual undulations of her hips.

Azraq had considered it briefly for some minutes; it had been awhile since he had had sex with a woman. He didn't know what he had been doing with Sie the previous week - what it meant, what it was supposed to mean - he didn't know if Sie was doing the same things with other people, because as far as he knew, there were many men on the palace who would not blink twice to take such an opportunity. Azraq didn't even know if he would be able to take her, after having been tasting Sie little by little the previous week, he didn't even know if it would matter that he didn't.

In the end he had decided to just watch her move, impassively. He didn't put distance between them but he didn't closed in either.

To Azraq's astonishment, Sie had been the one to bring it all to a halt. Sie had stood and grabbed a pitch of water, he had walked closer to them and had dropped the whole vase over Zamarrid, making her gasp while getting drenched.

"I thought you needed water, you looked exhausted." Sie had said softly, and regally. At that, Zamarrid had answered leaped from Azraq's lap, towards Sie, outraged and ready to strike. Her fingers, intent on hurting Sie, had collided with Azraq's hand.

Azraq had shook his head.

And Sie had smiled sweetly, while she spluttered, red faced and still wet.

Later that night Sie had come to his rooms-

Azraq studied the sleeping man beside him, white porcelain skin and white soft hair. It was as if Sie had been born out of pure snow; he touched Sie's face lightly with the pad of his fingers.

Sie opened his eyes, soft dizzy red staring back at him. He didn't say anything, never did during these new encounters between them.

Azraq kissed him, waiting, expecting perhaps to be pushed away -but Sie only opened his mouth wider to be kissed deep, bringing Azraq closer to him, between his naked thighs.

Sie whimpered, throwing his head back and closing his eyes, when Azraq started a slow rocking rhythm between them. Flesh against flesh.

He had been inside Sie just some hours ago. And he wanted to be there again but he didn't know if he would be allowed to -this simple rocking was something they had done before and Sie had seemed to like it. It was safe.

"Stop," Sie said breathless and Azraq did.

Sie licked his lips, "I want to do what we did before," he said quietly, embarrassed. A soft pink on his cheeks.

"Yes." Azraq rasped and started kissing him again, his neck, his chest, the rosy nipples adorning it, his stomach, his thighs.

Sie panted and tried to muffle the sounds coming out of him, as Azraq breached him with his fingers, he was still oiled from before plus Azraq's seed that had stayed inside. Still Azraq grabbed the oil, coating him inside and oiling himself before pushing in.

Sie jerked, moaning, his head lolling as Azraq fucked into him. Slow. Torturously slow. Azraq wasn't in a hurry and he hoped to make it last. He grabbed Sie's hips and slammed into him, hard, in and out, again and again.

Sie cried out at a particular shove, when Azraq changed the angle of his thrusts. It was there. That hidden part of him that made him cry out his pleasure. Sie tightened around him then, making him lightheaded -and yet Azraq kept moving, hitting him in that special place again and again and again. Sie screamed, and arched his back, eyes closed and fingers clenched on the bed-sheets.

It was all it took to make Sie come, untouched. He shook afterwards, eyes heavy lidded and half open afterwards -Azraq still hard inside him.

It took a couple of more minutes of him still rocking inside Sie to reach his own orgasm.

After that he pulled out and let sleep claim him. They would go back to fighting and to Sie hating him in the morning; to being enemies, a Queen and low-blood born of Hazan. Tonight that didn't matter though, tonight Azraq didn't know better than…

This foolish notion of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry XMAS.


	24. Orchide I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not betaed.

Zanbaq didn't know what to expect anymore, at times he felt like he was living another's person's life, and then he woke up from the dream… And he understood it was (real) his life now.

Hadid had promised to take Azraq to safety -and Zanbaq believed this to be truth. This life he had now was a small price to pay for having Azraq well, and if not happy, then Zanbaq hoped at least healthy.  
It was a struggle every day to not cave and plead to Hadid to take him to see him.

But maybe it was for the best. 

Zanbaq wouldn't be able to keep fucking Hadid if he saw Azraq again. And he did this (the fucking) a lot. He had to if he wanted to keep the King happy.

Over all, Hadid wasn't hard to please, so it was a blessing Zanbaq guessed -even if sometimes he felt like stabbing the fucker he had raised since being a brat, for making him do all this shit.

"Your Majesty?" A hurried maid called out to him, taking him out of his thoughts. 

Zanbaq stalled. That was another thing that made him think all this life he was living would just vanish in smoke. He was no royalty and he was no queen, he had been Hazan's scum once and yet now he had the title of Malika, the clothes and the power (albeit not to all its extent) that went with it. 

"What should we cook for today's meeting, your Majesty?" 

Zanbaq blanked, it was impossible for him to know these things. There was a meeting with the tribes, and it was important, as it was Karlann's way of mending back together after the civil war that had passed. Hadid was to choose a first concubine from them, to make the nation whole, happy and healthy again. It was vital in fact to make it perfect, for the good of the kingdom and yet he was in blank. 

"I don't," Zanbaq started but paused, he could ask Hadid maybe?

The Salha had been very exigent with the little things he had taught the prince. Etiquette for these events had been one of them. 

Zanbaq had belived it to be a waste of time; as he had taught Hadid only the optimal knowledge to be King. Zanbaq had seen the Salha's teachings as trivialities. It was now with a great distaste he understood, the Salha had been really good at playing the role he had been given.

"I will send for you once I decide," Zanbaq nodded. 

The maid bowed. 

It would do for now.

Zanbaq supposed it was for the best to ask Hadid quickly -but he only managed to find him after two complete hours had passed.

The King was in their rooms engrossed in documents. Zanbaq closed the door and undressed without fuss -he wanted Hadid clear headed and easy for the dinner tonight, and there was only a way to get him like that. 

It really didn't take much effort from his part...

Zanbaq moaned, arching his back as Hadid fucked into him again and again. They didn't usually fuck face to face, but this time Hadid hadn't relented. It was maybe, the knowing of having to fuck a woman soon, of future children and responsibility. Zanbaq let him do as he pleased because of this. Just this night.

Hadid opened up Zanbaq's legs and changed the angle, touching his prostate and making him cry out. The headboard rattled with their movements, as the slap of skin against skin could be heard through the room.

"I dont want to fuck anyone else," Hadid panted, slowing the movements of his hips to easy rolls, that made Zanbaq's spine burn with pleasure.

Zanbaq moaned at a particular hard shove and arched reaching climax. "You are a fool," he said when he had breath again. 

"I know," Hadid said reaching orgasm and pulsing inside Zanbaq. 

Zanbaq groaned and shoved Hadid off him. They fucked and he enjoyed it well enough, but in the end it didn't mean a thing. Hadid had demanded the fucking to be a must and Zanbaq had complied to save Azraq's skin. 

"What should I serve for fucking dinner?" Zanbaq asked, switching position on the bed, after some minutes had passed. 

Hadid looked at him and sighed. "Something fresh, bread and sweets. I have been told their women like sugar."

"You don't have to like her or talk to her but you do need a heir, so make it the best you can tonight," Zanbaq shrugged wondering why he still felt the need to advice the brat who had blackmailed him into sleeping with him. "Karlann belongs to you now, take good care of it."

Hadid sighed and nodded. He was too young to be a king, to be a husband (Zanbaq's), to be a father -and yet he had done remarkably well since he had took the throne. 

It was true sometimes Hadid went silent and closed off, with his eyes lost. Getting away from everything and everyone, even Zanbaq, as if mourning the death of someone or something. Zanbaq knew that kind of gaze, Azraq had been good at it. 

Zanbaq had never been partial to it.

Zanbaq glaced at him sideways. "You have doing well so far."

Hadid glaced back but remained silent.

\---

Sie looked at the mirror and wondered how the man looking back at him could be himself. The clothes and jewelry, and the white - Warf was eating slowly but surely what he had been in Karlann once. It took time now, to see himself in the mirror and to find Azraq's concubine. Sie even missed the red of his Karlann's clothes.

Warf seemed alien to him these days. Whatever he had loved of this kingdom and its people, it seemed distant now. Another reality, another life. Even the palace that had been his home years ago, now felt to him like a lifeless, gray fortress. Sie was alone in this place full of people claiming to know him, to remember him, to love him as the Orchide. The only saving grace was that Azraq was alive and healing, slowly but well.

Sie was to visit him tonight and if all went well, the main healer had accepted for Azraq to be moved to a private room. It had been talked already it would be the same Sie was currently living in. 

After all, Azraq was now a slave from Warf -and his.

It had been the only way Sie had found to keep him alive and safe. 

Sie's impending wedding with Kalte had been a high price to pay to manage it, but it would be worth it if it kept Azraq away from the brutes that had wanted to tear him apart piece by piece. 

Night couldn't come soon enough. 

Sie wandered aimlessly the palace halls, waiting for the infirmary to start visiting hours. Nobody talked to him or bothered him at all, he had a rank to high to be talked at without an audience -with the silence and all the white surrounding him, it made him feel like a ghost. 

It was already late and almost time for him to go to the infirmary when he heard a rhythmic 'clap-clap' against the floor approaching fast. 

Sie stilled at seeing a woman pass him by; her shoes were the reason for the constant clap-clap, high and pointed. She was beautiful, with lucios black hair and lavander colored eyes. 

She faltered at seeing him there, and Sie suspected it had to do with the unkempt of her clothes wich she was clutching at to avoid it falling of her shoulders and having coming out from Kalte's roms. Old habits died hard.

"Orchide." The woman said in passing, with a mix of acknowledgment, distaste and embarrassment. 

Sie could see her pale skin was flushed, her neck covered in love bites, her lips red with kissing and her hair in total disarray. 

Sie tipped his head but didn't say anything at all. She was ashamed enough as it was and he wouldn't do anything to make it worse. He had to go the infirmary already anyway. 

Once there Sie found Azraq still sleeping in one of the beds reserved for high quality servents -as he had asked since the beginning. Azraq was still bruised but not nearly as bad as he had been when Sie had taken him from Kalte. 

Sie approached the bed, and sat by Azraq's side, watching him sleep -his fingers moved without him realizing it, and soon enough he was caressing Azraw's brow, his cheek and his lips. It was such a beloved familiar face, Sie felt lightheaded with just the proximity. 

"Wake up already my love," Sie pleaded hushedly at the sleeping man. 

Azraq had been delirious the few times he had been awake, calling out for his sister and flinching away everytime Sie touched him. 

"Please," Sie mumbled softly, bending down to kiss Azraq's feverish forehead. 

It was no use however, as Azraq didn't even stir.

Sie sighed but straightened up and went looking for the head of the healers. He found her making a concoction for sleeping she had offered to him earlier that same week, as he had trouble falling asleep these days.

"Your Highness!" She gasped. "I didn't hear you step inside."

Sie smiled briefly. "Please, you can call me Sie." 

"Oh I possibly couldn't, highness! It would be a great disrespect." 

Sie nodded patiently. "You can call me however you wish then. I just came to see if it was already possible to take my slave from here?" 

"Oh yes! Yes! Of course," She said looking flustered. "Oh Highness please forgive me! I forgot I had to send him to you today." She shook her head and all her messy curls shook with her. 

She was a bit on the heavy line, with a chubby face and short stature but Sie liked her a lot. She had never refused to heal Azraq, as some of the other healers -under Kalte's orders- had done. 

"You can take him. He is stable and it shouldn't take much longer for him to wake up." 

Sie smiled at her. "Thank you."

\---

Azraq looked pale against Sie's white bed-clothes, but he was breathing normally and his bruises had healed without infection. Azraq's heart was perhaps the biggest problem of all. Sie had known it suffered some kind of illness as Azraq had explained Zanbaq traveled constantly to get him medicine -but he had never been weak or really ill so Sie hadn't paid much attention to it.

Until now. 

Azraq's heart was too slow and too weak, it struggled hard to beat without the medicine -and here in Warf there was nothing quite like it. Still the head-healer had found a similar substance, it wasn't as strong or as efective as the other one but it worked well. 

Sie walked towards Azraq and took off his clothes -putting on only one of the light sleeveless robes he used to sleep in, in Karlann.

Sie looked down at one of his simplest attires of his previous life and smiled, twirling around -and with this he noticed he missed dancing a lot as well. 

The clothes he was wearing had been an unexpected gift from Azraq. A deep blue robe with fine and delicate gold paterns on it. It was meant to be done for a queen of Karlann. Sie had heard the talks around the palace after Azraq had given it to him. Back then he had been afraid of being seeing as such, of behaving like a impostor queen, of not being enough for Karlann, for Azraq, for himself. 

Back then he hadn't wanted a gift like this -that spoke about Azraq's feeling so loudly without the King saying a single word. Sie hadn't loved him then, or he hadn't believed he did, and it had made Sie uncomfortable to be handled as something so precious. 

Now all he felt was happiness at knowing, he had been loved so fiercely. And hope of course, hope of only having to win Azraq's heart back (again) to be allowed to keep it forever. 

Sie climbed beside Azraq on the bed -it was big enough for both- and curled towards him. Alive and warm, Azraq didn't wake but he moved towards Sie's waiting arms as he had done many times before in Karlann, in their rooms and in their bed. 

"Come back to me," Sie breathed softly in Azraq's ear, holding him tight. "Azraq, I love you."

Sie closed his eyes ready to sleep and nuzzled Azraq's neck, hoping for Azraq to wake up tomorrow.

Sie did fell asleep a few hours but he woke up afterwards, and startled, thanks to the constant knocking on his door. He disentangled carefully from Azraq and left the bed. 

Sie opened the door to find Kalte looking at him as if he were the last drop of water in the five kingdoms, and Kalte the thirstiest man on them. 

"I had to see you," Kalte said with blood-shot eyes and trembling fingers. 

Sie nodded expectantly. 

"I just," Kalte closed his eyes, and clenched his fists. "I just wake sometimes, and still see you drenched in blood and dying, drowning in sand."

Sie crossed his arms, feeling hesitant. "I am sorry for having caused you grief."

Kalte shook his head. "It wasn't your fault."

Sie shrugged. "It was my choice in the end."

"You did it for me."

Sie didn't say anything to that. 

"You look beautiful tonight, Sie." Kalte said after some minutes. "You have always been beautiful to me but I didn't say it before."

"Thank you." In another life Sie would have been elated to hear such words, but in this present there wasn't much he could say about it. 

"I-I have changed," Kalte said with shining amber eyes. "It could be different now. I could- I can make you happy as your husband and as a man. Let me give you the world."

"I don't want the world. I just want Azraq to get better." Sie shook his head. 

Kalte took a step back, eyes narrowing. "How can you still defend him?"

"I vowed myself to him."

"You will be my Orchide!" Kalte snarled.

"Only in name." Sie answered back curtly. "You can keep having fun with your women, I won't say a word about it. We will get married in paper and it will stay in paper."

"The Orchide belongs to the King."

"But you are no longer my King." Sie said finally shaking his head and turning around back to his room and back to Azraq. 

\---

Hart smiled, trailing fingertips through the pale skin of the maid he had fucked last night. She fluttered her eyes softly and prettily, as his fingers started rubbing her nipples.

"Your majesty?" She asked breathless as he kept touching her. One of his fingers trailed down and she moaned at his touch. 

"Were you a virgin?" Hart asked curious. 

She panted. "Yes."

"Mmm," Hart said already bored with her. "Then why do you act as a whore?" 

She gasped and trembled again, but now Hart could see it wasn't out of desire but out of indignation and fear. Sometimes Hart wanted to slap the girls who so easily spread their legs for him, because they were so stupid to believe it was something more than just fucking, it was not even funny.

Hart stopped touching her and sighed. "He was a virgin and kept acting as one, even after I fucked him."

The maid still trembled and looked at him with little understanding in her eyes. 

"And yet I thought he could be replaced," Hart huffed moodily. "I didn't think it through, and now all my toys lack when compared to him. I should have know better, I had him the logest time."

"I-I don't understand." The maid mumbled.

"At least this boring castle is getting interesting finally, with the new people and all." Hart said still talking to himself. "New blood, new blood." He sang in a little mocking tone.

"Should I go?" The girl asked wide eyed and helplessly.

"New blood, new blood and poisoning. I love it! And yes go away, I don't want to see you around me ever again." Hart continued with the song.

"As you wish my prince," She said hurriedly putting on her clothes, and scrambling to get away from him.

"You would be pettier in red!" Hart called out laughing, after she left his room.

Covered in blood!

It was such a pity, he really shouldn't have let go of his most beloved toy. Sturdy and kind, stupid too but that was to be expected -every one was too stupid in Hart eyes. Maybe he could get it back? 

Yes! He would do his best to get it back. Definitively. "Wait for me Reigh!" 

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well hello there. Um, it's been two months I think but in my defense, life got complicated suddenly this year -meaning my writing time got reduced by RL. 
> 
> ASTAS was/is my first Original story as some of the people who have been reading may know, and honestly I had no clear idea of what I was doing when I started. I just wanted to write something about Royalty and Slavery and I went from there. We are now in the final stage of the story, only ten chapters to go. 
> 
> There's a possibility of ASTAS having a sequel, always with the A/S as the main pair but I am not sure yet. I guess it all depends on my time and if the readers want it I guess. 
> 
> I also have a new story in this same universe called House of Cards; this one is vastly different than ASTAS and deals with cruder things and an Antihero, always m/m, though, if you are interested you can check it out.
> 
> [Also I am very sorry and very sad for all the SH trouble. I mean ICOS made me want to write Original Work. I am not with him or against him, I just feel bad for such an wonderful work as ICOS being tainted by all this. ]
> 
> And that's all I guess, see you soon hopefully…
> 
> Oh and I wanted to know if anyone is interested in communicating with me, let me know so I can see what to do about it because I deleted my Tumblr…so yeah.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is a pet project of mine… to tell the truth is in what I have been working mostly in these past months, I’m really excited about it but I also think no one will be much interested in it… that being said if there’s indeed anyone reading and --is like me, who needs to know who to ship since the beginning-- wishes to know who the main paring is, the story is about the king and the courtesan (Azraq/Sie), they are end game.


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